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)