1) Layout -
a)Changed the template to a more pleasant looking one instead of the other plain-green template. I believe it feels way better to read from a blog that has nice layout rather than one that is boring and plain. The layout seems to affect mood, the previous layout was horrid and unpleasant from the way i see it!
b)Added two pictures at top and bottom of the blog and a blog description, though not sure how it helps but it does make the blog appear more presentable.
c)Changed the font and colour of the text such that its comfortable to the eye and pleasant to read. While reading my previous blog i realised that the font and colour of the text was most unpleasant to the eye and it seemed like a chore to even read my own blog. After making changes I find that its alot better. =)
2) As for content I have tried my best to include in-depth thinking by spending more time on the posts. Also I hate to write about mundane stuff like current affairs as I really dislike handling such issues, thus, I would probably avoid posting current affairs topics in this blog as it would certainly lack personal opinions and boring to read (I know almost nothing about such topics).
I am not IT savvy so the changes made may not be significant but it would definitely make this blog more reader-friendly than it was before, hope you will understand =) and do let me know what can be improved.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
2012
The movie - 2012
Brief Intro
According to the Mayan calendar, the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. Alarmingly, it seems that there have been usually severe storms on the surface of the sun, which are having a grave effect on earth. By 2010, the world's top scientists have confirmed that the world would come to an end. As it reaches the year 2012, signs of impending doom have been steadily accumulating and fissures rapidly appeared in the earth. We are then introduced to Jackson Curtis(John Cusack)who joins the race with his family to ensure that humankind is not completely wiped out. While they attempt to escape the catastrophic natural disasters they encounter several nerve-wrecking dangers where they almost died. Eventually, they managed to board the ship and survived, however the world had been totally destroyed and most land was submerged in water, the remaining survivors had to start from scratch. Although like any other disaster movies which depict a happy ending for the protagonist, its special effects, realistic natural disasters and non-stop thrill makes it a must watch. Besides the effects, the movie shows that human beings can sometimes be selfish in the face if danger and most who managed to get the tickets for the ship were the rich (those people who constructed the ships didn’t get tickets either), this depicts typical human personalities and nicely links the movie to the audience.
Will 2012 come true?
After watching the movie, I wondered if it would really happen in the real world. Human activity had polluted and ruined the environment, this was one of the causes of the several catastrophes that occurred in the movie. Recently, several countries throughout the globe has met with strange weather conditions. Several countries recorded extreme temperatures both high and low for the first time ever. Some countries encountered heavy downpours which led to flooding (almost 80% of its state was flooded) while others met with hail (it had never been so violent before), the last time such extreme weather conditions occurred was more than a century ago. In the year 2010 of the movie, several countries were hit with severe life threatening weather conditions that had never happened before. Even in Singapore, the temperature is so high and almost every day the sweltering heat suffocates me, this was the first time I had ever felt this way. Is it possible that 2012 would come true? In my opinion it is actually possible, human activity has already damaged the earth severely, if we don’t put spare a thought for the Earth we are living on, one day it may take revenge.
Brief Intro
According to the Mayan calendar, the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. Alarmingly, it seems that there have been usually severe storms on the surface of the sun, which are having a grave effect on earth. By 2010, the world's top scientists have confirmed that the world would come to an end. As it reaches the year 2012, signs of impending doom have been steadily accumulating and fissures rapidly appeared in the earth. We are then introduced to Jackson Curtis(John Cusack)who joins the race with his family to ensure that humankind is not completely wiped out. While they attempt to escape the catastrophic natural disasters they encounter several nerve-wrecking dangers where they almost died. Eventually, they managed to board the ship and survived, however the world had been totally destroyed and most land was submerged in water, the remaining survivors had to start from scratch. Although like any other disaster movies which depict a happy ending for the protagonist, its special effects, realistic natural disasters and non-stop thrill makes it a must watch. Besides the effects, the movie shows that human beings can sometimes be selfish in the face if danger and most who managed to get the tickets for the ship were the rich (those people who constructed the ships didn’t get tickets either), this depicts typical human personalities and nicely links the movie to the audience.
Will 2012 come true?
After watching the movie, I wondered if it would really happen in the real world. Human activity had polluted and ruined the environment, this was one of the causes of the several catastrophes that occurred in the movie. Recently, several countries throughout the globe has met with strange weather conditions. Several countries recorded extreme temperatures both high and low for the first time ever. Some countries encountered heavy downpours which led to flooding (almost 80% of its state was flooded) while others met with hail (it had never been so violent before), the last time such extreme weather conditions occurred was more than a century ago. In the year 2010 of the movie, several countries were hit with severe life threatening weather conditions that had never happened before. Even in Singapore, the temperature is so high and almost every day the sweltering heat suffocates me, this was the first time I had ever felt this way. Is it possible that 2012 would come true? In my opinion it is actually possible, human activity has already damaged the earth severely, if we don’t put spare a thought for the Earth we are living on, one day it may take revenge.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Term 1 Week 9 Online Lesson
Intrapersonal [pick one]:
a. Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.
I would want to be friends with Arthur Radley. He had been prejudiced against by the Maycomb residents and was blamed for every single crime that occurred in Maycomb. Even after the real culprit was caught, the people still suspected him. To them, he was like a phantom evil and creepy. If I could be friends with Arthur Radley, I would want to know why he didn’t like to venture outside and how he felt about the way the residents treated him. I would also want to know why he didn’t want to clarify with the residents that he wasn’t an evil person, how his brother, Nathan Radley, had treated him and how he felt about living in Maycomb. Being friends with him could allow me to clear so many doubts that the novel itself can’t. I could also help him explain to the residents his difficulties and probably help him to get accepted by the Maycomb residents. After all, being able to know someone better can also help me learn how they would think and act from their perspective. Furthermore, he saved Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. This shows that he is actually kind at heart and willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need unlike what the other Maycomb residents thought of him. As such, he will be a nice person to be friends with who only has kind intentions.
Naturalist:
a. Do a research on the natural habitat of mockingbird. In your research, include the kind of flora and fauna you think exist in Maycomb and explain why the mockingbirds live in Maycomb.
Mocking birds live in areas with open grounds, shrubby vegetation and in land developed for agriculture. Maycomb is an old small town. It was poor as well due to the depression. Its main income would be from agriculture. Due to it being old, shrubby vegetation around the area would be quite common. As its small, the population around the area shouldn’t be too large and there would be some open areas to suit the mockingbirds. Agriculture being its main income would mean it has agricultural lands which are perfect feeding grounds for the mockingbirds. Thus, mockingbirds live in Maycomb as the living environment is suitable for them. Also, the people in Maycomb do not kill mockingbirds as they regard it as a sin to kill a mockingbird and it would be safe for the mockingbirds to live in Maycomb.
a. Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.
I would want to be friends with Arthur Radley. He had been prejudiced against by the Maycomb residents and was blamed for every single crime that occurred in Maycomb. Even after the real culprit was caught, the people still suspected him. To them, he was like a phantom evil and creepy. If I could be friends with Arthur Radley, I would want to know why he didn’t like to venture outside and how he felt about the way the residents treated him. I would also want to know why he didn’t want to clarify with the residents that he wasn’t an evil person, how his brother, Nathan Radley, had treated him and how he felt about living in Maycomb. Being friends with him could allow me to clear so many doubts that the novel itself can’t. I could also help him explain to the residents his difficulties and probably help him to get accepted by the Maycomb residents. After all, being able to know someone better can also help me learn how they would think and act from their perspective. Furthermore, he saved Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. This shows that he is actually kind at heart and willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need unlike what the other Maycomb residents thought of him. As such, he will be a nice person to be friends with who only has kind intentions.
Naturalist:
a. Do a research on the natural habitat of mockingbird. In your research, include the kind of flora and fauna you think exist in Maycomb and explain why the mockingbirds live in Maycomb.
Mocking birds live in areas with open grounds, shrubby vegetation and in land developed for agriculture. Maycomb is an old small town. It was poor as well due to the depression. Its main income would be from agriculture. Due to it being old, shrubby vegetation around the area would be quite common. As its small, the population around the area shouldn’t be too large and there would be some open areas to suit the mockingbirds. Agriculture being its main income would mean it has agricultural lands which are perfect feeding grounds for the mockingbirds. Thus, mockingbirds live in Maycomb as the living environment is suitable for them. Also, the people in Maycomb do not kill mockingbirds as they regard it as a sin to kill a mockingbird and it would be safe for the mockingbirds to live in Maycomb.
MI Learning Profile
Kinaesthetic: 18
Linguistic: 16
Logical: 19
Interpersonal: 20
Intrapersonal: 20
Naturalistic: 20
Musical: 8
Visual/Spatial: 17
The results show that I may be nature smart. I will like the world of plants and animals and enjoy learning about them; I may be myself smart. I will know about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses; I may be people smart. I will like to mix with other people and I will belong to lots of clubs. I like team games and are good at sharing. In fact, the results are extremely accurate!
The MI test lets me know how I fare in each area and which learning style suits me best. Thus, learning through the intelligences which I am best at can ensure that I will grasp more of the topic and understand it better allowing me to know more. Learning through my better intelligences will ensure that learning will not be a daunting and monotonous task as I can now enjoy it by learning through preferred styles. I can also try to improve on weaker areas by tackling tasks based on my weaker intelligences. Overall it is a good gauge for me to know myself better and what I am good or weak at.
Linguistic: 16
Logical: 19
Interpersonal: 20
Intrapersonal: 20
Naturalistic: 20
Musical: 8
Visual/Spatial: 17
The results show that I may be nature smart. I will like the world of plants and animals and enjoy learning about them; I may be myself smart. I will know about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses; I may be people smart. I will like to mix with other people and I will belong to lots of clubs. I like team games and are good at sharing. In fact, the results are extremely accurate!
The MI test lets me know how I fare in each area and which learning style suits me best. Thus, learning through the intelligences which I am best at can ensure that I will grasp more of the topic and understand it better allowing me to know more. Learning through my better intelligences will ensure that learning will not be a daunting and monotonous task as I can now enjoy it by learning through preferred styles. I can also try to improve on weaker areas by tackling tasks based on my weaker intelligences. Overall it is a good gauge for me to know myself better and what I am good or weak at.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Home Learning
Pros (general)
Even if teachers are away they can still assign homework and put up lessons online for us to study despite their absence, hence, lesson periods will not be wasted. It is an innovative method of learning whereby lesson structures are fixed and instructions are to the point. There is a higher level of interaction which arouses interest of students to keep them focused on the tasks at hand. Comments can be posted and we can learn from them. Also we are able to refer to everybody's answers and be inspired by their good points. With home learning, students can wake up later than usual as there is no need to travel to school; lessons are just several clicks away.
Cons (from my perspective)
It would have been holidays if I were in primary school. However, teachers can now “teach” us and “give” homework online in HCI. If teachers gave homework that can actually be completed within the lesson span of 1hr I would not bear such a grudge towards home learning. However, in my opinion, some teachers take advantage of home learning to give us ALOT MORE homework and expect us to finish them or have them as homework. It really angers me that there home-learning is actually meant for us to do more work…true enough we do not need to wake up early but the amount of work given forces us to “stay back” to finish them even with the breaks in between. I have tabulated 13 assignments, 2 essays, 2 discussions and 1 proposal (excluding minor assignments) for 1st and 2nd march home learning. These sums up to almost 20 tasks over the span of 4 hrs lesson for 2 days each, that’s like 4 times the normal workload we would receive on normal school days. Besides these, distractions are generally common as there is no one to watch over us and we may lose concentration or even forget to complete the work assigned.
Once again, this is just my opinions of home learning. Everyone has different perspectives, thus, I would like to know how everyone else feels about this issue.
Even if teachers are away they can still assign homework and put up lessons online for us to study despite their absence, hence, lesson periods will not be wasted. It is an innovative method of learning whereby lesson structures are fixed and instructions are to the point. There is a higher level of interaction which arouses interest of students to keep them focused on the tasks at hand. Comments can be posted and we can learn from them. Also we are able to refer to everybody's answers and be inspired by their good points. With home learning, students can wake up later than usual as there is no need to travel to school; lessons are just several clicks away.
Cons (from my perspective)
It would have been holidays if I were in primary school. However, teachers can now “teach” us and “give” homework online in HCI. If teachers gave homework that can actually be completed within the lesson span of 1hr I would not bear such a grudge towards home learning. However, in my opinion, some teachers take advantage of home learning to give us ALOT MORE homework and expect us to finish them or have them as homework. It really angers me that there home-learning is actually meant for us to do more work…true enough we do not need to wake up early but the amount of work given forces us to “stay back” to finish them even with the breaks in between. I have tabulated 13 assignments, 2 essays, 2 discussions and 1 proposal (excluding minor assignments) for 1st and 2nd march home learning. These sums up to almost 20 tasks over the span of 4 hrs lesson for 2 days each, that’s like 4 times the normal workload we would receive on normal school days. Besides these, distractions are generally common as there is no one to watch over us and we may lose concentration or even forget to complete the work assigned.
Once again, this is just my opinions of home learning. Everyone has different perspectives, thus, I would like to know how everyone else feels about this issue.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Animal Abuse
I recently witnessed an incident whereby two young kids were treating their pet dog (it was leashed) in an abusive manner. They were tugging at the leash of their dog really hard and pulling it wherever they want, sometimes even in circles. One of them even attempted to sit on the dog. I could see that the dog was struggling profusely as a sign of disliking such treatment. Their mother appeared to be advising them to stop but her words fell on deaf ears, no action was taken. The dog was being tormented by its owners and looked really pitiful. Although they are young or probably ignorant of how the dog actually feels, why are they “allowed” to ill-treat their pet this way? Do they even have the rights to torture it? How would they feel if they were being treated as such?
It was also only recently that I heard from a friend that he had watched a video of a woman abusing her cat eventually killing it. The cat was supposedly being stepped by her (she was wearing high heels) repeatedly over the body whereby the cat was eventually killed with a blow in the head. The scene was full of blood with internal organs of the cat lying around. It was plain cruelty. Did the killer have no sense of guilt at all, how could she kill the cat in such a terrifying manner and even upload it on the net for all to see? From my perspective she finds amusement in torturing animals. She probably treats them as lower beings and that she can take their lives at any time.
Sometimes I don’t understand why people can have the conscience to do such a thing and worse still to capture the scene for everyone to see on a website. The cruelty and stone-cold conscience that some people have developed is horrifying. Are more and more people actually doing such things or is it just the minority few? Animal have lives too, they are just like us, they too can feel pain and we never treat them in such a manner. They are there to accompany us; the world belongs to not just us but every other living thing on it, such actions should never be condoned.
It was also only recently that I heard from a friend that he had watched a video of a woman abusing her cat eventually killing it. The cat was supposedly being stepped by her (she was wearing high heels) repeatedly over the body whereby the cat was eventually killed with a blow in the head. The scene was full of blood with internal organs of the cat lying around. It was plain cruelty. Did the killer have no sense of guilt at all, how could she kill the cat in such a terrifying manner and even upload it on the net for all to see? From my perspective she finds amusement in torturing animals. She probably treats them as lower beings and that she can take their lives at any time.
Sometimes I don’t understand why people can have the conscience to do such a thing and worse still to capture the scene for everyone to see on a website. The cruelty and stone-cold conscience that some people have developed is horrifying. Are more and more people actually doing such things or is it just the minority few? Animal have lives too, they are just like us, they too can feel pain and we never treat them in such a manner. They are there to accompany us; the world belongs to not just us but every other living thing on it, such actions should never be condoned.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Balancing of CCA and homework
My CCA: Track and Field – Long Jump
Track and Field is a rather demanding CCA (theres training even during home-learning and on "half days") as it’s extremely competitive and require a lot of commitment from the members. Besides the major Nationals there are several mini competitions as well such that the coach can select the 3 to join Nationals.
My recent long jump competitions
After joining track and field (long jump) since April last year, I have not joined any competitions till this year. In fact, I have yet to join any competition whereby I represent the school along with my teammates throughout my life. The recent all-comers at Bukit Gombak Stadium was my first experience at any external competition be it sports or academics. Initially I was really nervous afraid that I wouldn’t do well and end up disgracing myself but after several trial jumps I was quite confident I would not do too badly. On my first jump, I surprisingly jumped a distance between 5 and 5.2m, never had I jumped so far during my trainings. The feeling was great and this continued for the next two jumps.
Several weeks later I joined the 2nd all-comers. This time my aim was zone 2 (5.2-5.4m), however, I ended up over boarding all three jumps… either the distance for the run up was wrong or I was slower than normal.
I knew that I had to train harder, however, for me to “want to” train harder especially when the Nationals are approaching; I would need less homework. Training while a stack of homework awaits me when I get home is unpleasant; it seems like a burden and I wouldn’t have the mood to train properly. Yet there’s nothing I can do. Homework will always be a part of schooling life.
Homework
Due to the fact that HCI is a top-notch school, the amount of homework given is generally more than that of most schools as students are probably required do more practice. In my opinion, homework is a chore for someone like me who has CCA commitment daily. However, I can only attempt to balance CCA and homework. Staying up till 11 or 12 is now common for me to finish off homework. If only there would be less homework, sometimes I even have to skip CCA just to do homework. I hate homework…
Track and Field is a rather demanding CCA (theres training even during home-learning and on "half days") as it’s extremely competitive and require a lot of commitment from the members. Besides the major Nationals there are several mini competitions as well such that the coach can select the 3 to join Nationals.
My recent long jump competitions
After joining track and field (long jump) since April last year, I have not joined any competitions till this year. In fact, I have yet to join any competition whereby I represent the school along with my teammates throughout my life. The recent all-comers at Bukit Gombak Stadium was my first experience at any external competition be it sports or academics. Initially I was really nervous afraid that I wouldn’t do well and end up disgracing myself but after several trial jumps I was quite confident I would not do too badly. On my first jump, I surprisingly jumped a distance between 5 and 5.2m, never had I jumped so far during my trainings. The feeling was great and this continued for the next two jumps.
Several weeks later I joined the 2nd all-comers. This time my aim was zone 2 (5.2-5.4m), however, I ended up over boarding all three jumps… either the distance for the run up was wrong or I was slower than normal.
I knew that I had to train harder, however, for me to “want to” train harder especially when the Nationals are approaching; I would need less homework. Training while a stack of homework awaits me when I get home is unpleasant; it seems like a burden and I wouldn’t have the mood to train properly. Yet there’s nothing I can do. Homework will always be a part of schooling life.
Homework
Due to the fact that HCI is a top-notch school, the amount of homework given is generally more than that of most schools as students are probably required do more practice. In my opinion, homework is a chore for someone like me who has CCA commitment daily. However, I can only attempt to balance CCA and homework. Staying up till 11 or 12 is now common for me to finish off homework. If only there would be less homework, sometimes I even have to skip CCA just to do homework. I hate homework…
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