Sportsmanship much?

Being an athlete, I like sports to be engaging and entertaining. With the many sports competitions that have been organized, more and more students have opportunities to represent their schools in these games. Sports and games among schools are always competitive so as to instill the spirit of determination among the students to strive for victory. Of course, the students train hard for many days just to perform their best during the competition where the eventual aim is to be champion. However, in any game, there can only be one champion, and some participants have to contend with losing in the competition. While it is important to achieve best in the competitions, students have to be able to take losses in their stride, as no one would be able to stay at the top forever. Thus, sportsmanship among students is more important than the end result of the game.

Though school sports are much less competitive than international sporting events, students have a tendency to think only of winning the game, where sporting values such as sportsmanship and friendship are rarely observed. Such can be seen in this case, where the brawl has taken place between the two schools. It is because of the lack of the display of vital values such as sportsmanship that has cause an after match brawl to take place. The implications of the brawl would be disastrous, where students were injured and being an athlete, I wonder if the coaches have instilled a sense of sportsmanship within the players where it is not winning that counts, but the process in pursuing that victory. Often, morality is forgotten where the individual only cares about winning.

A brawl is just a demonstration of how coaches are failing to channel the correct mindsets into their athletes where losing a game is perfectly alright and the right thing to do would be to congratulate the other team and not bash them up. Such is the failures to promote healthy competition within our student athletes where the actual meaning of the competition is diluted.

Also, I am more concerned for the safety measures that the schools take in ensuring that no casualties arise from the competition. There are many incidents that reflect on the mistakes the schools have neglected to rectify such as a student injuring his head in a judo match, a rugby player was hospitalized after foul play during the match and the student that died after a fatal kick in a taekwando competition. After such disastrous accidents that happen, many people are now afraid to continue in that sport for fear of ending up In the same fate as the people. As an athlete, I would like to encourage more students to take part in sports, but if the safety measures are not properly taken care of, how can we expect our students or their parents to participate in that sport without the fear of getting injured? We want to promote sports, and not shun people away from these sports that will be safe after safety measures are taken.

Hence, I think that for the true spirit of competition and sports to be made clear and enjoyable, the spirit of sportsmanship have to be understood and displayed where safety is also another major contributing factor to the overall enjoyment of the sport.

Life

Wow. The amazing topic on life. Life means a lot of things in different contexts. Scientifically, life is the continuation of biological processes in your body that allows respiration to occur to keep your heart beating. Religiously, life is a gift from god who created people. However, life can be summarized in a few lines.

You are born

You spend your first years learning about everything around you

You spend the next 10 or so years studying

You work for the next phase of your life

You grow old and wait for the Grim Reaper to come and take you away.

And that's it. That's what everyone experiences. It is monotonous. Nothing ever changes for anybody. (Unless of course, if you drop out of school at a young age.) If not, nothing is ever anomalous. If we skip some lines in between the order, Life is simply a slow wait for death.

Why? I don't get it. We work so hard and go through so much pain, suffering and mindless gaining of knowledge all for it to just go down the drain when you die. Well of course, if you look at things scientifically its just the end of biological processes.

Life can be exciting or a torture for us human beings. Some of us study hard, earn money and then have fun, while some play hard, earn money, and wish they could have studied harder. Life goes through stage after stage, bringing upon new challenges and discoveries for us. life is magical. Life allows us to feel, to hear, to see and to communicate.

Nowadays in this rapidly developing world, we tend to lose ourselves. Life is now but a way of getting on with each passing day, fulfilling what necessary duties there are for the day and then we go to sleep, not-so-eagerly waiting for the next day to come while we do the same things. We often have aspirations. Let's say we meet that goal. So what? We now have to contend with the workload or duties that comes along with it. Life goes back to another endless cycle of working our hearts out for the hope of a better retirement. After working like slaves for almost a quarter of our lives, we are now retired. And then? we are now too old to have any sort of 'real' adrenaline pumping fun. The giant savings we have acquired over the years have now not much use to us, except maybe for our daily cup of coffee or tea. Going traveling is possible, but tiring, pulling about your old frail body like that around the romantic streets of Paris doesn't really hit the mark. Well, we could go back to working, but then it would be the same process we have gone through for the last part of our lives. And then, after many years of sitting in our houses and watching soap operas or taking care of children, we rest in peace in the holy sanctuaries. That's life.

Sometimes, I really think that Life is just lifeless.

Childhood

Childhood. A word that immediately brings up bright pictures of children running around in the playground, chasing butterflies in big plain fields and behaving like monkeys around parks. Or is it? Childhood now brings up books, school and video games. Whatever happened to the time where children climbed around in trees, flew hand-made kites and caught spiders in match boxes? That was childhood in the past generation. Now, children stop having all these experiences, where they attend school for long hours everyday, when they reach home, spend long hours doing homework and when it is the weekends, spend long hours playing video games. The outdoor fun-filled activities that are experienced everyday have evolved to the stressful and fast-paced lifestyle now. Why are more and more children experiencing the stress and have to combat the rapid advancement of myopia among the children now?

First, let us talk about the education system. School begins early in the morning, a time where students are not awake enough to even be sure where they are. Then begins the lessons. lessons carry on for another 6 hours, where only a very small portion of it is recess. Fine, after school ends, where children are looking forward towards a rest for the other half of the day, then the teacher gives a massive pile of homework. Why? I thought we just spent a whole day at school? Anyways, the children that time only need spend 1-2 hours doing their homework. The rest of their time is spent playing with their neighbours and having valuable bonding time with their family. Children now are cooped up at home after school trying to finish their homework. Children then sleep late at night due to homework or maybe they just want to unwind after finishing their pile of homework. When weekends arrive, children are gripped by the hungry claws of more weekend homework. In any case, children are still buried under academics where they have lost their child spirit where mostly, they worry for the fact that they might be haunted by failed tests. Thus, children fail to experience the joy and laughters that children of the past generation cherish so much.

Next, technology is also a factor. With the rapid development of new technology and gaming consoles, most children now don't care about outdoor activities anymore, all they think of is leveling up their personally customized online avatars. Occasionally, they might come out for a game of soccer or two and then, it's back home for more mindless staring at the screen. Spiders now need not live in the constant fear of dying a slow death in a match-box or plastic bottle. Such practices are unhealthy but it seems the only alternative for modern day kids as people now are lazier and less willing to expose themselves in the sun when they can enjoy themselves in the comfort of their homes. As our world becomes more 'screeny' more and more kids are also suffering from myopia. Such is rare among children of that generation.

Hence, I feel that childhood has changed a lot through the years. I wonder when will be the next time where children would catch spiders, climb tress and play harmless pranks again.

Shakespeare, I doubt you!

The authorship of many famous plays of romance, comedy and tragedy have been doubted as the works of the great writer, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is said to be the writer of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and many other poems, however, the actual authorship of these great works have been debated over the years. Many people claim that all of these works could not have probably been penned down by this man over here. Many reasons are available to let us believe that Shakespeare could not have possibly been the author of these works of genius.

Firstly, let us examine Shakespeare's background. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire England. Throughout his years, Shakespeare had only attended a few years of grammar school and had not went on to study in any universities or traveled abroad to study. With such little command of the English language, how could Shakespeare have probably constructed and written some of the most profound usages of the English Language in the poems that were credited to him? Therefore, it is quite impossible that the greatest writer in the history of England never went to school and still had the ability to write such great plays of sophistication.

Also, Shakespeare never traveled abroad. So, without traveling or going to school, how did Shakespeare suddenly gain the education to write great plays of such varied subject matter? How was Shakespeare able to find out so many accurate details of what life was like in the royal court when he was just a poor "writer" during that time?

Furthermore, Shakespeare's exact date of birth is unknown, few documents or verifiable sources of Shakespeare's life exists, much fewer than what would be expected of such a prominent figure and none of his original manuscripts have survived. No documents are available to provide as evidence that anyone has even met him, where not even his own family referred to him as a famous playwright. When Shakespeare died, he did not leave any letters or diaries that referred to his writing career at all.

Many theories exist as to who actually wrote Shakespeare's works and many suitable "candidates" have been selected as who would be the author of those works. William Shakespeare might also be a fictitious person where it was just a cover-up of the author's actual names as many of Shakespeare's plays were highly political and the author would likely have his head resting on his feet if the original writer were to be found out. However though, we can still continue to believe that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare and let us just enjoy what great works he or someone else wrote.

LA task 2: Rainbow Death

1) Point of view
I think the poet wrote this poem in a third person point of view where he addresses the problem and situation as someone who is explaining them, depicting the damages that the Americans have dealt on the innocent Vietnamese by using the deadly chemical known as Agent Orange. This can be seen from how the writer starts off with the phrase "America did not foresee," where it can be interpreted that the poet was trying to show how careless America was in using the chemical Agent Orange which caused heavy damages to the people where they were "now thinking twice" but it had already taken its "toll on the innocent and unborn". Throughout the course of the poem, the poet seems to be narrating on how the chemical has destroyed lives and caused countless damages. Thus, the poet adopts a third-person point of view.

2) Situation and Setting
The setting and situation displayed in the poem is according to the Vietnam War where the Americans utilised the chemical Agent Orange to expose Vietnamese soldiers hiding in the foliage. This move proved useful in the early phases of warfare, but as time passed, the harmful side-effects of Agent Orange slowly began to reveal itself. It caused widespread damage to people's health everywhere. The poet chose to reflect Agent Orange in this poem as it can be considered as one of the most controversial incidents that has happened where its effects are still living on in our current society now.

3) Language/Diction
The poet masterfully incorporates appropriate diction to fully display the entire "feel" of the poem. The title itself, Rainbow Death, is an oxymoron where a rainbow would least likely be associated with death as a rainbow is bright and colorful while death is dark and sinister. Thus, the writer makes a reference to the "Rainbow Herbicides" that were used in the war that have caused many deaths when it was never meant to be lethal or damaging to health. Therefore, depicting the surprise that they got when something that they thought to be harmless was actually harmful. Another word that has the same meaning and effect as the title would be the words "death potpourri". A potpourri is a mixture of dried, natural and fragrant flowers. It is a stark contrast from death as a potpourri is usually to have a gentle fragrant scent through your house. But to associate it with death would turn it into an oxymoron, with the same effect and meaning as the way the title is written. Thus, with the careful use of these words, it can be seen that the poet is mocking the way the American soldiers used Agent Orange without realising its repercussions.

4) Personal response
This poem seemed strange to me at first, until I saw the last line that finally mentioned about Agent Orange. I have read about this Agent Orange before but that remained at the back of my head until I came across this poem that reawakened the spirit of the Agent Orange in me. I pitied the people who have and are suffering from the after effects of this deadly chemical. This poem also made me feel for the people that have gone through the tough trial oof warfare, where the war is not over when it stops and are still fighting battles of their own either physically or mentally. War has horrible repercussions that are unimaginable if started. Hence, I have understood and received the message that the poet was trying to convey and I hope that one day, war will be a distant thing of the past.

LA task 1: Rainbow Death

Here is the poem that I will be writing about:

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson (Ssgt USAF 1968-1972)

Hubert Wilson is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. Along with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, he was assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska which heavily contaminated by Agent Orange. Agent Orange is a code name for a herbicide and defoliant contaminated by TCDD and used by the US army in its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam war. Agent Orange was used to cause the leaves to drop off of trees and plants, thereby exposing the Vietnamese soldiers that were hiding within the foliage.

This poem speaks mainly of the Vietnam War that lasted between 1955 to 1975 along with the use of Agent Orange. This was a cold war military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia where eventually, other countries and states joined in the great battle. The Vietnam War probably would only be remembered by the harmful chemical of Agent Orange that was introduced. The use of Agent Orange seemed to be effective at first, where soldiers were easily exposed and "taken care" of. However, Agent Orange is said to have caused many side effects among the soldiers and the people living in Vietnam. Also sprayed in Vietnam were Agent Purple, Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent White, and Agent Blue as well as a bunch of other herbicides where it was named the Rainbow Herbicides. The poet, Hubert Wilson, drank water contaminated by this Agent Orange and after that, his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc.

Agent Orange has been said to cause many deformities among the newborn where babies would be born without limbs or are severely disfigured. Many generations have cursed this use of Agent Orange where its effects are felt even till the young of today's Vietnamese children. HOWEVER, contrary to popular belief, Agent Orange has nothing to do with the disabilities that are present in their offspring. Scientists have not proved that there is a link between Agent Orange and the disabilities.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_orange
http://www.johntreed.com/agentorange.html
http://onlyaliberal.com/blog/2008/01/
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Temptations

The world around us is full of temptations. Be it temptations of food or games or anything. Temptations cause people to lose control of themselves and succumb to the wonders and joyousness of them. Temptations are deemed as bad by many. Unless of course, one is a student and is greatly tempted by the allures of schoolwork then he or she would be the model student for everyone to follow. Those cases rarely happen though. Now in our fast growing world of technology, more and more temptations are now radiating off technological items. Ipods and games and many more. All these ensure that you waste your time on it instead of doing something useful to your life. Little by little, we find technology slowly invading into our lives, causing us to lose sense of the appropriate things to do at the appropriate times. Temptations for technology, double T, double the danger.

Many people find themselves unable to live with the form of technology they are so tempted by, such as laptops or their favourite PSPs for even a day. This turns us into gentle addicts to our technological items. Nobody can possibly firmly turn down a temptation. Temptations are the world's number 1 at ruining our life's schedule. People often feel the regret and anguish of their valuable money and time lost just because they failed to control themselves for that few minutes when their "addiction" acted up. Many have tried to relieve themselves of their killer temptations, but many have failed.

Unlike popular belief, a strong will is not enough to combat temptations but does give you an upper hand. For me, the best medicine to cure the enticements of those temptations to you is to simply avoid it. This works to an extent until the temptation is just right beside you. Then all you have to do, is to curse the temptation and list out all its bad points, out loud. this really helps you to bid farewell to those pesky temptations that are costing you your valuable time and money. Temptations are hard to forgo, but it can be cured. All it takes is for the power of time to kick in. The longer you forgo the item that tempts you, the lesser you will be attracted to it. Your efforts will be successful the day you find yourself staring at the television without switching it on at all and leave 3 seconds after. That will bring you to the highest stage of self-control. Thank you.

51st Inter-school track and field coverage (Long Jump-Finals))

Hello again everybody. This will be the continuation of my experience at the track and field nationals. This post will be on the finals. As you can see from the previous post, I qualified with a breeze. Qualification was easy. The challenge only comes in the finals, where everyone there is already a 5 meter jumper. Being in the finals means a lesser "confidence bonus". I had to constantly remind myself that my personal best was 5.52 meters, that I could easily be on the podium if I manage to pull of a jump of that caliber. Such self consolation worked to a certain extent.

Minutes ticked by arduously. The rain was not stopping. My event was to be pushed back. This only helped in assisting the little devil known as nervousness to gnaw away bit by bit into my heart. The rain, as I thought that my event might be postponed to a later date, slowed to a slight drizzle, and soon, to a complete stop. I jumped straight away into my track suit and rushed to the call room immediately when the rain stopped. I took long deep breaths to regulate my ever racing heartbeat as well as to keep my muscles warm in the frosty cold call room. The 15 "survivors" of the qualifying round lined up and geared up, ready for some fierce competition.

Surprisingly, I was really surprised, I was the first jumper! I always thought I was one of the last and had time to prepare myself mentally for the competition. So, after a few practice jumps, the competition commenced officially at 5.30pm. I rubbed my hands together and wished for luck from the other competitors (Its a track value of friendship at competitions). I headed for my starting point. Slapped my thighs a few times to get them in "working condition" I took three steps back in prepare of my run up. I gathered my thoughts and off I went! I gathered up speed with every step I took (kind of obvious). my eyes flickered from the foul board to the end of the pit. I neared the foul line and leaped at the very last moment.......

A red flag came up. I looked away in despair. Faulting the first jump was not a good sign of things. I slumped back down onto my seat and tried to get myself to focus better. The next jumper had better luck than me, jumping a 5.08 meters. Quite easy for me to beat him, but my faulting condemned my first jump. I watched as the other Hwa Chong athlete jumped a distance of 5.21 meters. That was when I told myself that my medal was on the line and I had to buck up. The final Hwa Chong jumper also faulted his first attempt and we exchanged consolations. One jumper stood out from the rest of the other schools' jumpers as he jumped a distance of 5.52 in his first attempt. I was dumbstruck when I first heard his distance. He had already jumped my personal best! Therefore, if I wanted the gold medal to be mine, I had to set a new personal best.

The last jumper made his jump with a distance of 5.13 meters. I was up again in my 2nd attempt. I repeated the words "do not fault do not fault do not fault" over and over in my mind. Until I was sure of myself, I proceeded with my run up. Each step brought me closer and closer, I aimed at a few centimetres before the fault line and jumped, I could feel that I reserved a little power and had not gave it my best. I saw the white flag go up and waited eagerly for the results. It appeared I had jumped a distance of 5.34 meters. It was disastrous. I slapped myself a few times and told myself to get a grip. I was not leaving that event without a medal. Apparently, that distance alone brought me to 2nd place. That was until Marcus, the other Hwa Chong jumper jumped a distance of 5.35 meters! 1 centimeter hung in the balance. After all the jumpers finished their jumps, I readied myself for action once again.

I sucked in my stomach again and slowly let the air out. I calmed myself down and stretched some of my muscles. I told myself, it's now or never. Without much thinking anymore, I just broke off into a slowly accelerating run. At the last few moments, everything seemed to slow down, only the sand pit remained in my sight. I jumped.

The white flag was raised! I was actually quite delighted at that jump as I felt myself really soaring for the first time in the competition. The result was out and I jumped a whopping 5.51 meters! not my personal best but still, it was a good jump. In the end, my last 3 jumps still did not enable me to get a breakthrough and I settled for silver. It was a rewarding experience though, pressure on the mind and lots of new friends made. All in all, the competition was enjoyable and I now have 12 more contacts added on facebook Bye!

51st Inter-school track and field coverage (Long Jump-Qualifying)

It was a clear blue day when I arrived at Choa Chu Kang Stadium for my event, the long jump. Crowds of students were present at the grandstand, eagerly waiting for their event to begin. I found a comfy spot and plonked myself down onto one of the seats. I thought to myself that this would be the most important track and field day for Secondary 2. Soon, the time for reporting for my qualifying jumps drew closer and closer. I went to warm up at the allocated space in the car park, having jitters all over me that I would not even qualify. Alas, it was 10am, the officials called for all C division long jump boys to report to the call room. I picked up my shoe bag containing my precious spikes and went off into the call room.

A cold rush of air blasted itself onto my face as I walked into the call room. Eagerly scouting for my possible "threats", I began to shake myself up a little, to loosen up all that tightened brain nerves. Finally, we were led to the long jump pit. My heart rate went up. My breaths became shorter and quicker. After a quick confirmation of our positions, the qualifying round began.

429! the official called out. My fellow Hwa Chong Institution participant, Jonathan Chuang, was up. He strolled forward with an air of confidence and took his position along the runway. With a few fast strides, he broke off to a fierce run and jumped. Sand deposited itself metres away from his landing point. a white flag was raised. He qualified! Well, actually it was kind of expected but you sure got to be happy when you qualify for such a big event as this. The next participant looked as confident, but failed to qualify. Many people in front of me failed to qualify. This only added up to my anxiousness in my ability to qualify.

472! my number was called. I jumped up and down a few times on the spot to get my muscles geared up for action. That was it. I had to make it big. Qualify now let's go! I broke off into an insane run, a run I had never ran before. I felt myself picking up lots of speed as I neared the foul line. At the very last moment, I pushed my legs as hard into the ground as I could and felt liftoff. I watched the qualifying length throughout my entire jump. Thankfully, I had to look behind me at the qualifying mark after my jump. I saw a white flag raised and just realised I had qualified! The pressure in me loosened and I managed to regain calm and peacefulness. I smiled to myself as we walked away from the jump pit. It was just a matter of hours before I had to go for the Long jump finals held at 4pm. Stay tuned as I will bring you the coverage of the Long jump finals in the next blog post.

Visual: Obituary for Mrs Dubose

I will be posting the the obituary for Mrs Dubose on Edmodo. So if there are any questions, note them down at the comments and I will see what I can do about it.

Musical: Poem on Life in Maycomb

Maycomb County, old and sleepy,

home to many walks of life.

Maycomb County, old and sleepy,

home of racism and despise.

But there was one wise lawyer,

whose name goes by Atticus Finch.

He harbors no discrimination,

Neither do his children, not to an inch.

There was a scary place,

whom everyone found taboo

It was the Radleys'

that lived a stranger known as Boo.

No one dared to walk up there,

a Negro especially.

For the fear of Boo,

and Mr Radley.

School was a weird place,

With Burris Ewell arriving only for the first day.

And Scout was punished,

Just for knowing how to read an essay.

Everyone was discriminated against Negroes,

But Calpurnia was lucky,

she had Atticus's support,

and lived quite happily.

To put a long story short,

Maycomb County is more than meets the eye.

With many more incidences coming up,

Such as Tom Robinson's trial.

Multiple Intelligences test

I feel that this multiple intelligence test, a set of 40 questions designed to determine how well you are are inclined towards 8 different aspects of intelligence, is not entirely correct to determine exactly what kind of a person you may be. This is because this test is a computer generated program that gives answers to whatever order you may have put your answers in. This way, many people could feign the answers and be the perfect man on Earth that excels in all aspects of intelligence. Confidence, here, plays a vital issue as to whether one scores well in this test.

For example, if you are not very confident of what you may or may not be doing, you might put down the answer that you are not very proficient in that aspect of intelligence. On the contrary, if you are too confident to the extend that you become egotistical, you might put down that you excel in all aspects, which of course, also results in an inaccurate result. Therefore this test is very subjective as to who takes it.

If organisations want to hire or evaluate a person's character, they would mostly use this test to determine their various aspects of intelligence. Once again, this test would be inaccurate if placed in different situations. In one, a it could be that a person is being accessed to see if he would be hired into the company. A common trait in most humans are that they want to be better than others. Hence, the person might purposely associate all the best answers to himself, in the process, making himself look good in front of the employer, resulting in inaccuracy once again.

Hence, this test is not entirely correct as people can just fake answers (I was also tempted to). I think this kind of tests should be performed with a person of more qualifications that will produce results of greater accuracy.

It is. Or is it?

Forgive me if you think my title is inappropriate after you read but I hope you are able to see why I used it. Okay, back to my main post. I am sure that most of you here has been to at least one motivational talk in your life where they tell you to treasure what you currently have and be satisfied and things like that. Then they start showing you pictures of a very stressed up kid and say "do you hate studying?". Then they show you another picture of children from third world countries writing on the sand and tell you "they don't even have a proper classroom to conduct lessons." My first reactions are, yes of course I should treasure my time to study because they cannot even have a proper classroom or even shelter to conduct their lessons in. However, after thinking about it more, I realized, there seems to be some kind of mistake in this logic that I hate studying while they want to but cannot. Firstly, children nowadays do not hate studying, they just prefer to relax more than to doing work. Secondly, we are in a more developed country, we have i pods and computers and Facebook nowadays to distract us from studying, while they do not.

With all these distractions, children nowadays definitely would prefer all these things to homework whereas in third world countries, they have nothing to do except laze about, catch fish, or anything that they have done for over a decade. Of course if we let them study, they would love it as it is a change of activities for them instead of the usual stuff that they do.

Therefore, my take on this issue would be that, keep the message about treasuring whatever you have right now. Throw everything that they compare you to third world countries out of the window, because the living conditions between theirs and our's is imply too great for an equal or at least comparable comparison

Ostracism

I think that most of you here, when you see this lame old topic, immediately think of Negroes or foreign workers that have a darker skin complexion than us. However, my post today is not on that kind of ostracism that has already been debated and spoken about for a few hundred years. Rather, I will be discussing on the discrimination not of skin colour, but rather, one kind of ostracism that many many people have been through. I shall not tell you the exact kind of ostracism I am talking about here through definition but rather, through a short scenario.(I know this trick is old)

Student A: Hmmm! What a nice weather today. I think I shall take a short jog round the track!

(Puts down bag and starts jogging)

Student B: Eh? Isn't that the dwarf from 2K2 (Class changed to protect identity) "sprinting" round the track?

Student C: I think is him leh! Eh let's go "sprint" with him la.

(Put down their bags and sprint to the track, jogging next to Student A)

Student B: Woah! Not bad eh? The dwarf knows how to run leh! I'm very impressed!

Student C: Looks like our "teachings" worked after all eh? Finally can move his legs front and back! Oh, I feel so honoured!

Student A: (Stares at them and returns to his bag)

Students B and C: Aiyo, jog so little cannot run already, maybe his little dwarf lungs cannot take the huffing and puffing running causes.

Student A: (Quickly walks away.)

As it is pretty clear now, the kind of ostracism I am talking about is about body build and size. Many people around the world have been ostracized due to their body size, whether they are too big sized or too skinny. These people are normally shunned at school or any place else. They are tormented day after day by insults about their body size. These people take the insults, feel hurt, but normally can do nothing about it. Those people with a more average body size continue to insult them as they think it is fun and allows them to feel as if they are some great dictator. This could and most probably will scar those people emotionally. All I want to say here, is that nobody can determine the figure of your body. If you are obese, there is a slim chance that you will slim down to a "normal" body size anytime soon and if you are skinny, eating a lot will not help either, so my blog post here today is to put through the point that nobody can choose what his or her body is like, but they can feel less hurt if people do not ostracize them. Therefore, we have to stop this kind of ostracism before it really gets out of hand and the ostracized goes through a tough regime to get his body in shape which might endanger his health. However, this ostracism is very hard to curb as long as there are people that one to feel as if they are lords by insulting other people of different body sizes. Therefore, if one is on the receiving end of these insults, I say just take it as a small breeze of dirty air and blow it away, so as to enjoy the cleaner and fresher air around you that is your true friends.

Terrible terrible accident.

Right, I must make this clear before you carry on reading the rest of this blog post, the accident DID NOT happen to me. (Sorry to disappoint). Now that that point has been put through, I shall continue with the rest of the blog post. Ok, today, after boarding an unusually crowded bus during an unusually peak non-peak hour, I stood back and tried to relax. Through the entire journey, I lugged my heavy school bag behind me. Hoping for a place to sit that was apparently not going to come. I lasted through the entire journey. Heaving a sigh of relief once I saw the interchange coming in sight, I reached for my wallet, waiting to tap it when I saw this young boy bounding down the stairs. (It was a double-decker bus). Within moments, what began as a moment of joy for the kid, soon turned into tragedy.

The boy missed a step and fell face first into the unforgiving base of the stairs. Many people around merely gave off a "Ohhhhh" and just turned and enjoyed the "show". The parent of the boy then came running down. (He did not fall). He aggressively pulled up the weeping boy and gave him a tight slap across the face. My first reaction was like (forgive me)......WTH? I listened on only to hear the father scream at his son for being so utterly careless. The more I heard, the more question marks started to form above my head. First, I was completely stunned that the father added a slap to his son's already severe injury. Second, I was wondering, why the hell is his father scolding him for the fall when he is already crying as if he had just his hair pulled off violently? I alighted the bus, pondering over this question. Are parents nowadays using this "spectacular" teaching method? This method, I must say, is quite effective if it is used in a minor accident that occurred, but I feel what this parent has done today is too much. Come on, the child has fell face first onto the cold hard floor. Another slap to his FACE just worsens the injury. Though I must admit that the child can only learn if he has been through a terrible accident like this but I feel that the slap unnecessary.

Thus here, I sincerely feel that the parent is at fault here. Because the child has not done anything wrong. The slap was bloody "extra" What are your thoughts and takes on this matter?

Metaphor

This is a song that I feel has deep (Or maybe a little) meaning. Here are the lyrics first.

The secret side of me, I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can't control it
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it

It's scratching on the walls, in the closet, in the halls
It comes awake and I can't control it
Hiding under the bed, in my body, in my head
Why won't somebody come and save me from this, make it end?

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster

I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster

My secret side I keep hid under lock and key
I keep it caged but I can't control it
'Cause if I let him out he'll tear me up, break me down
Why won't somebody come and save me from this, make it end?

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster

It's hiding in the dark, it's teeth are razor sharp
There's no escape for me, it wants my soul, it wants my heart
No one can hear me scream, maybe it's just a dream
Maybe it's inside of me, stop this monster

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I've gotta lose control, he something radical
I must confess that I feel like a monster

I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster

This song basically means that majority of people put on a facade that's not the actual you. The "monster" the song mentions is the "inner you" the one you will not want people to see and if you reveal the "monster", it could tear apart your reputation and all that people believe that you are. (Stanza 5) Based on the above "meaning" to the song, one can easily find out the other metaphors that bring out this point of people putting on facades. This song is loaded with metaphors which is why I feel its so fun to read.

p.s. The song is: Monster by Skillet.

A freshening up

Ahhhh... A new year has finally arrived. Stand up and wave the welcome of the year 2010! (Though we are already a few weeks into it) A new year means a new resolution, new academic syllabus and a touch-up on what seemed a dead blog a few months ago. This blog, is mainly for educational purposes. Not for posting what shoes I wear or anything. Posts here will be serious, thought provoking (I think) and anything else except fun and excitement. (Sorry to disappoint here). Although it might seem boring, the posts can and will appeal to the vast majority of people. (I sincerely hope so)

This blog, I must say, being revamped, does look a little better. Lots of new stuff while capturing the essence of the old stuff. So there you have it, and incredibly short blog post that marks the debut of this new persona of the blog. Thank you. (My apologies for the number of bracketed words)