CIP

Hi all,
Well recently, 3 days ago in fact, the CMCs of every class has to go for this CIP. It is to give out flyers to the residents living around Taman Jurong. Well, basically it is to inform them about an upcoming newspaper collection which is on this coming Friday. This newspaper collection is basically supposed to be our "National Day Celebration", not that it is much. All the proceeds for this collection is supposed to go to the Taman Jurong CC.

Well at first, my father could not really find the CC. I mean, it is not as if there was a big sign saying " I am the Taman Jurong CC" or something like that. So after half an hour of circling round practically the entire of Taman Jurong, we finally found the place. Many of my school mates were already there. So after a long wait (not sure why it took so long as I was playing my PSP) it was time to give out flyers to the residents living around there. Since the next class, 1P2, was quarantined, we had to take over their role and instead of a total of 6 blocks, we had to take on a total of 12 (NOT FAIR!) blocks. Since there were six CMC members in our group, we split the job into three groups, two people for 4 blocks. I was paired up with the welfare secretary Nicholas Hong (d0tarocks.blogspot.com) and MAN! There was a lot of work to be done.

I can't really remember what blocks we went to, all I remember about the blocks, were that they were H-U-G-E. So many units, so little time (3hrs). So, we went to every door and knocked twice (Good morning sir/madam, here is a flyer to inform you of next week's newspaper collection). If no one's in, well, lucky us. All we had to do was to drop a flyer into their front gates and NEXT UNIT.

Quite a lot of people were out, considering the fact that it was a Saturday morning, although it could be that they were simply pretending to be out. I could have sworn that I heard footsteps coming to the door before leaving again. =(

I also lost count of how many times I got greeted with a dog bark. Well, I guess they just hate poor little Hwa Chong students walking around knocking on doors and giving out flyers...(Just joking... really...).

After completing our second block, we realised this: ALMOST OUT OF TIME AND FLYERS!!! After getting a stock-up from Lester (our supervisor), we instead of knocking twice, reduced to one set of knocks per unit. At the last block. We were already out of time. In desperation, well, we sort of like just dropping the flyers into every unit we saw. I know it wasn't the right way to do things but... we WERE out of time...

After the CIP, I felt really beat, honestly, and guess what? I still had to rush for tuition.

I felt that it is a really enriching experience, for the simple fact that I never went for a trip like this in my life. I have experience how it is like to give out flyers. Such a new experience... How I wish ther is more of it. I have enjoyed the trip. =)

Suggestions?

Eh... Any suggestions for songs? You know... any new songs that I can put on my blog?

E-Learning lesson 3

The casino being built in Singapore is supposed to be a money-maker and job creator. However, many people have spoken against it.True, building a casino has a lot of advantages. It can create a lot of jobs for people, it can make a lot of money for Singapore. It can help Singapore grow economically. However, with its advantages, comes a lot of disadvantages.Without the casino being built, many people already have an addiction for gambling, whether they are addicted to the casinos in Malaysia, or whether they are addicted to gambling dens anywhere else, they are still addicted to gambling. They would go to great lengths to gamble. Won't building a casino in Singapore make these addictions grow from bad to worse? I went to Genting, Malaysia once. What I saw really shocked me. I saw two parents giving their child A LOT of money to play at the game machines at the ground level while they went off to gamble at the casino. Kind of shocking huh? Imagine that your parents left you alone just so they could gamble their money away. Not very nice, in my opinion.According to certain gamblers, they gamble because they think it is very exciting, it is like "holding one's own fate in their very hands", but come to think of it, even though some people might be lucky enough, they might win big, but to others, luck might not always shine on them. Even if you were to win some money back, most of the time, it moves you back to square one or you end up with less money than before.Also, by building a casino in Singapore, many people will gamble there excessively. By doing so, many problems related to the gambler's family relationship would surface. There would be more divorces, more arguing about money, more petty crimes so as to just be able to gamble for a couple more rounds. Some say, that without the casino, Singapore would be rather "backward", but I feel that by building the casino, it would lead to a lot of problems that would show us as being morally "backward".Hence, to lessen the amount of people gambling excessively, Singapore decided to run "affordability tests" to check if a particular person entering the casino can afford gambling. Those people who are rich would pass the test with "flying colours", but what about the rest of the gamblers? Since they are unable to gamble in the casino, they would probably find some illegal way to gamble, for example, in an illegal gambling den. Then, there would be more crimes and hence, more problems.I feel that if we do not even build the casino, then lesser of these problems would surface.

E-learning lesson 3...

Well, I was supposed to be posting this on wikispaces but unfortunately, I forgot to request membership with the wikimaster... so I would be posting it here...

The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at
My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me
Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment
When my eyes were actually closed



Well, I was supposed to read and analyse the poem and then respond to the question: Think back on our days in primary school. Do you share the same sentiments? What were your memories of those days? Write a poem of no less than 2 stanzas of your days in primary school.


So here it is:

Homework homework
everyday.
It's all about work,
All work no play.

Scolded by teachers,
reprimanded in class,
I do so hope,
it never lasts.

Exams are the worst of all,
torturing us to the core.
Study hard or you will fall,
your teachers will give your parents a call...



I know it ain't very good, but at least I tried...

Favourite Poet

My favourite poet is William Carlos Williams. One thing I admire about him is his determination and love for composing poems. Even as his Williams's health began to decline after a heart attack in 1948 and a series of strokes, but he continued writing up until his death in New Jersey in 1963.

I believe that William Carlos Williams is a very determined writer who really enjoys composing poems. Such love and determination to compose poems is truly amazing. Even though he was having difficulties coping with his health, he still continued writing poems. Without this love and passion for composing poems, or doing anything for that matter, it is difficult to do the best in everything we do. They are one of the most important things that we must have to do the best in everything. They keep us moving despite the obstacles.

Here's one of his poems from Journey To Love titled "Shadows":

Shadows cast by the street light
under the stars,
the head is tilted back,
the long shadow of the legs
presumes a world taken for granted
on which the cricket trills"


The breaks in the poem search out a natural pause spoken in the American idiom that is also reflective of rhythms found within jazz sounds that also touch upon Sapphic harmony. Williams experimented with different types of lines and eventually found the "stepped triadic line", a long line which is divided into three segments. This line is used in Paterson and in poems like "To Elsie" and "The Ivy Crown." Here again one of Williams' aims is to show the truly American (i.e., opposed to European traditions) rhythm which is unnoticed but present in everyday American language. Stylistically, Williams worked with variations on free-form styles, notably developing and utilising the triadic line as in his lengthy love-poem Asphodel, That Greeny Flower.

Here's another poem by him:

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines-
Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches-
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind-
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined-
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance-Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken


And another:

The Archer is wake!
The Swan is flying!
Gold against blue
An Arrow is lying.
There is hunting in heaven—
Sleep safe till tomorrow.
The Bears are abroad!
The Eagle is screaming!
Gold against blue
Their eyes are gleaming!
Sleep!
Sleep safe till tomorrow.
The Sisters lie
With their arms intertwining;
Gold against blue
Their hair is shining!
The Serpent writhes!
Orion is listening!
Gold against blue
His sword is glistening!
Sleep!
There is hunting in heaven—
Sleep safe till tomorrow.

All these info is taken from http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19912
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams

Favourite Poem

Very Early Spring by Katherine Mansfield

The fields are snowbound no longer;
There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green.
The snow has been caught up into the sky--
So many white clouds--
and the blue of the sky is cold.
Now the sun walks in the forest,
He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers;
They shiver, and wake from slumber.
Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls.
Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears....
A wind dances over the fields.
Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter,
Yet the little blue lakes tremble
And the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.



There are several ways in which figurative language is used in this poem.

Personification:
1."Now the sun waiks into the forest"
2."He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers"
3."Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls"

These sentences from the poem are personifications of the Sun. It is most probably used to compare more closely how the Sun behaves and acts, and also to make the poem more lively.

4."They shiver, and wake from slumber"
5."A wind dances over the fields"
6."Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter"
7."Yet the little blue lakes tremble and the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver"

These are several more instances where personification is used in the poem. It gives the poem a more lively feature to it as the reader is able further visualise what is happening in the story. It gives the unmoving objects like the grass and the trees a character and it is more life-like.

What I like about the poem:
The poem, in my opinion, is a very interesting poem. The poet uses a lot of personification in the poem and hence, gives it a very lively feature to it. Such excellent use of personification gives the poem a very lively and realistic appearence where the reader is able to visualise what is really happening in the poem. By changing the actions of nature into the actions of a certain "person" (for example, changing the rippling of the lakes into the trembling of the lakes), the poet has given each of the unmoving objects the qualities of a person, and hence, changed the view of what we think of those unmoving objects. How the poet uses personification to more closely how the Sun behaves is also rather amazing.

How do you who your friends are?

Firstly, let us all ask ourselves, what is friendship? What are true and fake friends?

Well, Friendship is a special bond between two or more people. It is a bond that we are able to treasure and cherish. Friends take care of each other when in trouble. Friends are usually people who share common goals and interests, and care about each other's mental growth. A friend usually wants you to be sucessful in life.

It can take many forms, from helping out your friend when he is having trouble to "borrowing" homework from each other (not to mention occasionally playing tricks on each other).

However, even friendship is split into two parts: True and Fake friends. Like I said before, a true friend would want to see how you progress in life, and wants you to be successful in life. A true friend would want tohelp each other out of the goodness of his or her heart. Even if you exceed him in terms of success, instead of mourning over how unsuccessful he or she is, a true friend would congratulate and encourage you to do even better (they mean it). A true friend would not pout and throw a fit just because you got higher marks than he did in a science test.
No, a true friend does none of that. A true friend would try his or her best to help you despite the difficulty. Basically, a tru friend puts you before himself.

Compared to true friends, fake friends differ by quite a lot. Fake friends are people who stick with you and become your "friend" only till you no longer any use to him. Either that, or you just gained some temporary popularity. A fake friend would try to help you unless it does not benefit him or her. He would not stiick around and share the blame with you. For example you rammed a soccer ball and it toppled and broke a few flowerpots, he would not stick around and share the blame, even if he did cause part of it. All you would see him do is run for his life. Heartless huh?

Speaking of true friends, I have one friend who really cared for me. When I injured my ankle, he did not just turn away and ask me to get up myself. Instead he went up to me and helped me up. Whenever I had problems with my homework, he would never hesitate to help and teach me the best he can. We cared for each other a lot, and went through a lot together. That was my most true and best friend I ever had.