A "Quote"

Today, during RS lessons, my form teacher, Miss Yeo said, "Do not ask questions which would betray your intellectual ability".

I agree with what she said to a certain extent. If we ask "smart" questions, people would think that we are at least thinking through what we say and not just say all the nonsense or ideas (to put it in a better way) that comes to our brain. If we just speak our mind, if our mind is thinking the "smarter" ideas, then, it is fine. Having said that, it is still very dangerous. We cannot really control what we think. I still feel that we should always think through before even saying or doing anything.

That is all for now, readers.

P.S. I hope that there is no offense taken by anyone because I was just voicing my view on what I feel that was quite meaningful.

Just for more: "Meaningful Quotes"
Meaningful quotes might not just come from people who spend their whole day thinking of something smart to say. Meaningful quotes can come from anyone, anywhere and even anytime, be it when someone is feeling happy, sad or angry, when one is teaching students and it just naturally come out, or even when scolding students. I am not kidding. Many of these meaningful quotes can appear when a teacher is scolding students.

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AAP Homework

The details are in the picture above...

To just explain because the picture above is not very clear, the advertiser has used extremely close-up shot to show just the hair and show clearly the hair problems. The advertiser has also used the aerial shot to show the hair clearly too. It also uses medium shot to show body language and facial expression.

That's all for now.

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The Lottery -- Themes

I have identified a few themes in "The Lottery". Some are blind leading the blind, self-preservation or self-interest, traditions and rituals, sacrifice and superstitions and ironies.

1) The first theme I have identified: Blind leading the blind
The villagers, in order to have good harvest, actually held lotteries and stoned people to death who picked the unlucky lot. Why did they do so? One point is that their ancestors have been doing this for decades, or even centuries, just a long period of time. They just follow blindly. This is just like the blind leading the blind. The ancestors just had a superstition (refer to point 5) that stoning someone to death would let them have good harvest. Are they sure? They were just like the 'blind'. Then, the descendants. They just followed blindly. Isn't this just the blind leading the blind?

2) The second theme I have identified: Self-preservation or self-interest
Another reason why they have this lottery is to 'preserve' themselves. Just for good harvest, they can actually just stone someone to death. The villagers want to preserve themselves. Have a better harvest, earn more by selling more in the market or having more to eat, and they are happy. They just look out for their own interest. I conclude from the above two points that the villagers that they are very simple-minded. All they want is good harvest. Sadly, they seek for it the wrong way.

3) The third theme I have identified: Traditions and Rituals
Traditions and rituals can be deadly. One example, the lottery. However, not all traditions are bad. Is giving angbows during Chinese New Year bad? In one of my previous posts on lottery, I have said that I opine that bad traditions are traditions that involves sacrifice or injury to one, especially one who could be so close to you.

4) The fourth theme I have identified: Sacrifice
In my above point, I have opined that bad traditions are those that involves sacrifice. Sacrificing someone in your village for a probable good harvest, is this fair to the person being sacrificed? I know, in a sacrifice, there is nothing known as fairness. There is no fairness in sacrifices. But, this lottery, this sacrifice, is it even necessary?

5) The fifth theme I have identified: Superstitions
The lottery, superstition or not? This question is subjective. To the villagers and the ancestors of them, the lottery is not a superstition at all! It is a fact, the truth. To many of us, we would feel that this is obviously a superstition. Let me give an example, one very famous superstition amongst my peers is something known as Friday the 13th. This day, falls on a Friday and the 13th of the month. For example, this year (2010), August 13th falls on a Friday. It is an example of Friday the 13th. It is known that on this day, unlucky things would happen to all. Some unlucky things just coincidently happen on that day and people would believe it. Bringing it back to the lottery, the villagers might have experienced good harvest the year they stoned someone, so they continued it. But, the good harvest could have been caused by other factors. Am I right?

Thanks for reading my long post. I apologise if this was too long. It just came naturally to me. :)

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The Scarlet Ibis --- Was the narrator too much??

Why I think the story was called "The Scarlet Ibis"
I feel that it was called "The Scarlet Ibis" because it is a symbol of Doodle. The Scarlet Ibis was very similar in many ways. But, I am going to share only one main similarity between them.

It died because of an external force making it/him do something beyond its/his power. The scarlet ibis was forced to fly over long distances to avoid the storm. The external force here is the storm. And the thing it did beyond its power was flying over such long distances. In the case of Doodle, the external force was the narrator. It was the narrator that forced Doodle to do things that he could not do, but still did because the external force was too strong. In the end, both the scarlet ibis and Doodle died because of this external force, which can be so strong it is destructive.

A Little about the story
The Scarlet Ibis is a touching story about a brother trying to let his younger brother do things like a normal kid could do. The younger brother was verdicted to not being able to live more than 3 months. His parents actually asked a carpenter to make a mahogony coffin for the younger brother since he was going to die. The only person who trusted that the younger brother would not die was the person who delivered him, Aunt Nicey.

Naming Doodle/William Armstrong/narrator's brother
After three months, the younger brother did not die. The parents decided to name him William Armstrong. When the younger brother was two, he started to crawl and talked a lot. Since he always crawled backwards when he crawled, the narrator decided to name him Doodle. The narrator feels that "Renaming [Doodle] was perhaps the kindest thing [the narrator] eveer did for [Doodle], because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle."

My Opinion on the name "Doodle" given by the narrator
I would like to voice my view on what the narrator felt. Although looking superficially, it looked as if the narrator was trying insult his brother. However, looking deeper, what he said made some sense. He did so to not let people have high expectations on Doodle because if they had high exectations on Doodle, he might not even be able to meet any.

Doodle and the Go-Cart
Then, whenever the narrator went out, his mother would want him to bring Doodle out in his go-cart. The narrator wanted to discourage Doodle from coming with him, thus he would "run with [Doodle] across the ends of the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels". The narrator was then, childish, and did not show much love to Doodle.

Doodle learning to walk
Going down the story, the narrator wanted Doodle to walk as he was tired of pushing Doodle around in his go-cart. The narrator "took [Doodle] by the arms and stood him up. He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty flour sack." They tried this many times until Doodle could stand alone for a few seconds. Then, they continued and Doodle could finally walk. Without the narrator, would Doodle be able to learn how to walk? Wouldn't he just be lying in his bed, waiting for death?

Doodle after learning how to walk
The narrator was ambitious. After making Doodle learn how to walk, he wanted to teach Doodle how to run, jump, swim and fight like a normal kid could do. It would be obvious that they would face many challenges. Doodle woud have experienced pain. But would Doodle's life be so rich without the narrator?

Class Discussions
In our class discussions, we have come to a conclusion that the narrator is cruel to Doodle because he loves him. In love, there is always a fight for more power.

That's all for now. :)

The Lottery

When people hear of lotteries, most would envision grand prizes of a few hundred thousands of cash prize, a plasma television, a trip to Las Vegas and many other luxurious prizes. Most people would want to earn lotteries, but is it the case in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.

In the lottery in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, villagers draw lots for their family. Then, the family who got the unlucky lot, everyone in the family would then draw lots. The one in the family which drew the unlucky lot would be stoned to death by other villagers as a tradition. This is so ironic as in my above paragraph, lotteries are meant to be good things and people who win it would be very happy. It is so much different in the story.

This tradition of those villagers was started off from a superstition that if they do so, they would have good harvest. Making someone die so painfully just for your own needs, I do not think it is fair. Moreover, this superstition might not even be true.

Are all traditions bad? If it is so, then giving angbows to other people would be bad too. Giving gifts during Christmas it bad too. To me, I feel bad traditions as those which involves injuring humans no matter physically or emotionally. Like in "The Lottery", it involved injury and even death to the villager who was unlucky to get chosen.

This lottery is very cruel. The villagers can actually be evil enough to stone someone who was living with them for so many years to death just for good harvest. This tradition might not even be true. As years pass by, the villagers would become more and more cold-blooded. They become inhumane. They become barbarians.

Another irony is that one of the villagers said that the village near them wanted to abort the lottery. What he said was that "next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves." This is ironic because the lottery is as savage and barbaric a ritual as any practiced by cave dwellers. He is criticising himself and his whole village without knowing it. They are so barbaric and they do not even notice.

Speaking of barbarians...A little off topic...so...
I have created a facebook group called Monsters VS Aliens. Join it and invite all your friends...:):D:P Look forward to as many people in this group as possible. Let's make it the most popular group on facebook. Yeh!! I am using propaganda techniques...

Thanks for viewing this blog post patiently. :)

E-Learning: Who would you want to be friends with in the Flowers for Algernon. Explain your choice.

I would like to be friends with Dr Nemur as I see that he needs friends very badly but he does not seem to notice. I am the kind who is not very sociable and would normally find friends who are less sociable than I am. Dr Nemur is one who cannot socialise well with people and is usually found having grouchy face, making people not like him. Through making friends with him, my laughter and happiness might be able to spread to him and he would live happier everyday. Moreover, I can see that Dr Nemur only aims for money and fame, but not looking for friends, which can be such an important part in one’s life. Therefore, I would look for him and he can continue pursuing his money and fame and have me as his friend as well. In addition, by being his friend, I might be able to change him bit by bit to not just pursue money and fame and pursue a bigger circle of friends to share his weal and woe with.

Facebook: Boon or Bane?

'Facebook' – sounds familiar? Well, Facebook is just simply a social networking site which allows users to '…share details of their lives with friends and loved ones, trading pictures of their memorable moments and participating in shared interest groups…', as quoted from a Straits Times article entitled Facebook User Made Police Report. Facebook, whether is it boon or bane, good or bad, beneficial or harmful, is a question worthy of debate.

Before we can even start on any discussion, we should understand the word boon. As defined in the Longman Dictionary, it is 'something that is very useful and makes your life a lot easier or better'. One cannot deny that Facebook has indeed many functions and applications which definitely enhance communication amongst friends and acquaintances through games, quizzes, groups, pages and photos being shared on it. No doubt, Facebook thus enables us to make more friends as we can know a friend, B, through an existing contact, A. Then, through B, we can know C, D, E and the virtuous cycle continues.

Having now highlighted the advantages of Facebook, it is time we consider the bane aspect. Longman Dictionary defines bane as 'something that causes trouble or makes people unhappy'. One cannot deny that Facebook has its obvious flaws. One very crucial blemish, which cannot really be controlled, is that anyone can join Facebook anytime, anywhere, and post any topic on it. Anyone on Facebook can also just create a social group and opine anything they like, post comments on their 'wall' and unfortunately, Facebook cannot restrict such activities if they are of malicious and offensive nature. The Facebook creator simply cannot possibly scan through everybody’s groups and 'walls' to verify anything considered harmful or uncivil. Although users can inform the site's moderator about anything impertinent, and many do; when the moderator is informed, then what? Remove the comment or group, ban the account user from Facebook or to take legal actions? The comment or group being removed can easily be created again, the user whose account was banned can always create a new one, and finally, taking legal action is tricky at times as the information provided can be dubious or unreliable and it would take a long time to track down the guilty.

The exciting part is here, so is Facebook boon or bane? In my opinion, it is unquestionably a boon if used appropriately and all users abide by the simple rules of Netiquette. Even if Facebook did not exist, there are still many different platforms available to post anything provocative or derogatory. Thus, boon or bane, it’s all our choice. It is our choice to make boon or bane. Undeniably, no matter how good something is, if the users misuse it, how good can it be?

The Scarlet Ibis -- Tableau

Today, we went to the Space to have our lessons. When we reached there, we arranged our chairs in a circle and there was a huge empty space in the middle. Our LA teacher said we were going to be doing tableaus for that lessons.

Tableau
A tableau is simply, according to my understanding of our LA teacher's explanation, a mime without movement. It was just a still scene without sound and movement. One of our classmates suggested that it was like a 3D picture. Our LA teacher said it was something like that.

During the lesson...
Our LA teacher said he was going to choose people to act different roles. We did the first scene when Doodle as a baby. There was Doodle, the narrator (Doodle's brother), Doodle's mother and father, Aunt Nicey, and the carpenter who made a mahagony coffin for Doodle (because the doctor said that Doodle would die in 3 months). Our LA teacher said that in a tableau, facial expression, body language and the whole body told something. In addition, the physical distance between characters show how close their relationship too.

Then, in many scenes, our LA teacher would ask if anyone would like to improve on the current tableau. A few raised their hands and our LA teacher would tell him to replace the person acting the role in which he wants to improve. Then, after the improvement, our LA teacher would give his comments then go on to the next tableau.

Everyone had a chance. Then, it was the last scene. I thought I would be so lucky and our LA teacher would forget me. Unfortunately, he remembered. I played Doodle in the scene. The scene was Doodle during the storm, when the narrator went back to see Doodle dead. I had to hug my legs closely to myself, head looking down. Another classmate played the role of the narrator. At first, he was seating quite far and just stretched his hand to put on my shoulder like he was shaking me. Then, our LA teacher suggested that he moved closer to me and put his hands around me like a hug to show the close relationship between the narrator and Doodle at the end.

Our LA teacher too said through all these tableaus, the narrator gets closer and closer to Doodle until my scene.

Socratic Seminar Reflection (My 1st One)

Last Friday, 19 Feb 2010, we had a mock socratic seminar. That week, I was part of the audience and only voiced my view once (I did not know what to say). I had to take notes of what other people were saying during their discussions to write this reflection.

Opening Question
The opening question was "Do you think the government or the citizens should create national identity? How and why

Summary of key ideas
1) The people should be the ones creating national identity as they would live it out as they create it.
My opinion on this statement: I agree with this statement. If the government forced a national identity on us, we would either act it out reluctantly or just ignore it totally.

2) Language does not define Singaporean. It is the attitude.
My opinion on this statement: I agree to a certain extent. It is not what we speak [Singlish, English and Mother Tongue -- Chinese (Mandarin)/Malay/Tamil] that defines our national identity. It is how we treat things and how we do things that define US (notice this isn't United States, it is just 'us' in capitalized form to emphasize) Singaporean. However, to a certain extent, the language does affect our national identity as when people hear Singlish, they think of Singapore

3) Some foreign talents are not enthusiastic about the country.
My opinion on this statement: I agree totally. The panelist gave an example taken from an article that during the grand Beijing Olympics 2008, the flag-bearer of our country was holding it so lowly that it almost touched the ground when other flag-bearers of other countries were waving it in pride. Apparently, the flag-bearer was a foreign talent.

4) The government wants Singapore to be a clean and green city. The government is only showing the good part of the country.
My opinion on this statement: I agree. The purpose of being a clean and green city is, other than saving the environment and having "national identity", it is also to let foreigners see the good side of Singapore. The government is just showing the good side of the country, Singapore Zoological Gardens, Night Safari, Sentosa, the new Integrated Resort and many more. However, as the panelists brought up, the foreigners are unaware of red light districts. The foreigners also does not know there are actually vagabonds in this country.

Conclusion
Actually, during the discussion, we sort of went off the tracks and the panelists did not link the point they were talking about to the main topic discussed, "What it means to be Singaporean?". However, the teacher supervising us helped us a little but it still was not ideal. The teacher said that we were all lucky that that was a mock one, and if that was an actual one, all the panelists would have got a zero. (I forgot what exactly she said).

My FIRST Time Writing an Essay

??-?-2010
Our LA teacher told us that we had to do an essay on either the setting or the characterization. When I first heard essay, many thoughts went through my mind. Is it going to be hard? How would I write it? Is this homework? Will I get stuck? I just had tons of questions I did not know the answers of. Fortunately, our LA teacher told us that he would guide us along so that we could learn slowly. He said that we would be doing the essay in class during curriculum time and he would teach us how to do it. I felt relieved.

2-2-2010
Our LA teacher taught us how to write a simple five paragraph expository essay. It was made up of five paragraphs, as the term implies, with three different parts. Our LA teacher used a burger as an anology for the structure of our essay. The essay would be made up of the top layer of bun (introduction), vegetables(first para of body), patty(second para of body), cheese(or vegetables again I forgot)(third para of body) and the bottom layer of the bun(the conclusion). The first paragraph would be the introduction.

Introduction
The top layer of the bun. I knew what was an introduction, but I did not know how to write it. Fortunately, our LA teacher went through with us a sample essay The Three Africas and pointed out the different parts of an introduction. The introduction consisted of setting the context, "grabbers" to capture the reader's attention, the thesis and an essay map. I have heard of "grabbers" before. I initially thought that we could ask rhetorical questions to capture the attention. However, I found out that I was wrong when our LA teahcer returned the essay for us to do another draft on 10-2-2010 and he said to not ask questions in expository essays. In addition, when I heard the word "thesis", I did not fully understand the meaning. Someone else in the class raised his hand and asked our LA teacher. He explained that it was to tell the reader what the rest of the story would be about. Then, the essay map. Our LA teacher said it would tell the readers what the points of the body would be about. That brings me to my next point -- the body, which makes up the middle 3 paragraphs. (2nd, 3rd, 4th paragraphs)

Body
The vegetables, patty and cheese. Our LA teacher said that we have to PEE, of course not literarily, in every paragraph in the body. Our LA teacher explained that PEE simply stood for Point, Evaluate and Examples.

Conclusion
The bottom layer of the burger. Our LA teacher said that the conclusion was the restatement of the thsis and encourages further thought on the issue. Again, I thought encouraging further thought was similar to a "grabber" and again, I was wrong.

Now onwards
I learnt a lot through writing this essay. I look forward to learning more things from my LA teacher.

A Basic Blog Description

A blog is a public online document where people can voice their opinions, thoughts and feelings in whatever way they like, but they must bear the consequenves, going to jail or receiving a fine, if they defame someone, post racist comments or do anything against the law through the blog. The posts, which are often written in first person and in informal tone and language, can be commented on by readers. The posts, being in reversed chronological order, appear with the latest entry at the top so that readers know that a new entry has been posted and does not have to scroll up and down to find the latest post. Lastly, bloggers can insert all kinds of multimedia in their blog to have more interaction with readers. Some examples of multimedia are pictures, music, videos and chatboxes.