First Aid... (Term 3 Blog 9)

Ooh... It is the end of the tests, and also the supreme rushing of ACE. For me, that is not really a problem since I do my ACE regularly, although not so for LA. Some people, whose names I will not state, are still trying to cope with their work (even after tests...). The thing I am looking forward to most now is our sabbatical, the CEPP thing. I have no idea what will happen there but I am sure that I will be able to apply the skills I have learnt in my CCA to overcome the problems there on the day itself. One of them is first aid. Several weeks ago, I went for the Standard First Aid Course held by Red Cross, spanning three weeks (every Saturday). Since then, I have learnt more about first aid then ever and how to respond to certain situations. Even more so, I have learnt to apply the basic principals of first aid and how to save people during the worst scenarios. These are the four main purposes of first aid...

(1) To preserve/ sustain life

(2) To prevent condition from worsening

(3) To promote recovery

(4) To provide comfort and relief

By fulfilling all four of these, and attending to the casualty before the "golden hour", there is a higher chance of your patient surviving! I feel that everyone should have some knowledge of first aid, so as to increase the number of people trained enough to save people on the streets. Otherwise, the "golden hour" might just run out even before the casualty is attended to.

And yet another book... (Term 3 Blog 8)

Hello everybody. I am sure all of you have realised that I have been posting a lot of book reviews. The main reason would be because I have nothing much to write about, and because I love reading, and I would like very much to introduce to you people some awesome books to read, to take a break off computer games. This book I will be introducing to you now is the third book of the series "Demonata" which is narrated through the eyes of Grubbs again.

This book is has the title of "Slawter", which I guess pretty much describes the scene in there. In this story, Dervish (Grubbs' uncle) meets up with famous horror film producer by the name of Davida Hymn. Davida already knows about demons, and even had a deal with them so that she could produce the most realistic movie of demons the world would ever see. Grubbs and Bill-E (Grubbs' brother) were extremely enthusiastic. Little did they know about the danger which awaited them. Along with Davida came a little albino lady by the name of Juni, with whom Dervish fell madly in love. Together with Davida and Juni, the trio (Grubbs, Bill-E, Dervish) went to an abandoned village, Slawter, to film the movie. To summarise everything which happened in Slawter, the acting crew died one by one when the "demons" (thought by all to be humans in costumes) attacked the village. Finally, on the last day of filming, the demon master Lord Loss (again!) launched an all-out attack on the humans. Davida was just getting satisfied by the ever-so-real scenes when the plan backfired. The demons turned on her and the shooting crew instead (never trust demons)! In the end, almost the entire population in Slawter died terribly, leaving only those miraculously saved by Grubbs and company alive. Yes, truly a sadistic pack of rampaging demons.

In this book, there is a character by the name of Bo Kooniart, who is one of the characters I admire. When the demons attacked, she kept a cool mind and cooperated with Grubbs (her enemy) to save as many lives as possible and to distract the demons. She displayed great courage when she was the only one who volunteered to get the actors out and loyalty when she went back to get her brother and father when she could jolly well just leave the danger zone. In the end, she died in the process of trying to save her father and brother. Just like any other book, you have to actually read the whole book yourself in order to understand the plot entirely. With this, I end this relatively lengthy book review.

{Slawter}

-Darren Shan

Chinese Common Test... (Term 3 Blog 7)

Ahh... It is finally the long-awaited end of all our tests. Just now in the afternoon, we all took our Chinese Common Test in class. Before the test paper was given out, we were all jittery and nervous about the test. Would it be hard? What would the questions be? All these questions were flooding my head. A few hours before the actual test itself, I was busily revising for the last time the structure of the compositions for the final time.
Only after we got the question paper did we realise that the test was actually extremely easy. I also realised that 曹老师 had prepared us well for the test, arming us with all that we needed to know for it.
After the test, I feel a sense of relief, as if a boulder just got removed from me. Not only because the test was easier than expected but also because the end of this test marks the end of the reign of this term. Are all of you busy celebrating now? Or are you guys busy preparing for next term?

Just another book... (Term 3 Blog 6)

This few weeks, since I have no other form of recreation, I have turned to reading again, to rid myself of boredom. This time, I am writing a book review about the sequel of "Lord Loss", by the title of "Demon Thief". This book is a little different from the first, since the focus switches from Grubbs (main character of entire series) to Cornelius.

This story is told through the eyes of a child named Cornelius, who is gifted with the ability of magic, to see random lights floating around. I will not go into details of his magical ability, since it would take too long to completely explain what his skills are good for. Anyway, he has always been puzzled by the presence of these patches of light hovering around in the air. Ever since he described his experience to people ignorant to magic (basically everyone around him), he decided to experiment for himself. He began to patch the pieces of light up, and finally managed to create something called a window, used to transport creatures from one universe to another. Unknowing to him, he travelled into the window to an alternate universe and came back seven days later, with a baby boy, whom he unknowingly took from the demonic universe. To keep a long and complicated story very very short, the baby boy (whom he adored very much) got taken away by Lord Loss (yes, him again), and went on a risky journey to recover the former. During the process of his mission, he discovered things about himself he would ever dream of, and finally resigns to the fact that he is part of the three people who would change the destiny of planet Earth, by protecting it from the juggernaut of demons.

This is a book you truly must read, if you are the kind of people who love fiction. Some things I like about this series of books is that the magic is not exaggerated. It is treated as an uncommon but not overpowering ability. Another factor is that the plot is extremely twisted and the upcoming situations are always very unpredictable. In this little review, I have excluded a huge amount of details which are important and close to the story line, since there is not enough time to talk about everything and definitely not enough space. Instead, the best way to really understand the plot of this book is to read it!

{Demon Thief}

-Darren Shan

Birthdays... (Term 3 Blog 5)

What does the word "birthday" signify in your heart. Is it an important day to you, when you indulge yourself in anything you want? Or is it a day of the year you dread, since it means that you are getting older? During our childhood times, I believe most of us look forward to birthdays, the day we get to be the "king", celebrate and enjoy. However, are birthdays as significant to us nowadays? Do we plead our parents to throw a huge party and invite all our friends? I doubt so. As we mature, we are more likely ignore such days, which in fact have no significance except remind us of the day which we were born on. How about you? How much do you value your birthdays?

There are both optimistic and pessimistic point of views on how one sees their birthdays. If you are an optimist, you would probably look forward to your birthday, since it is a milestone to tell you that you have been growing older and wiser all this while. However, if you are a pessimist, your thoughts of a birthday would just be reminding you that you are no longer young and are one year nearer to your death.

Personally, I love birthdays, not just because I get to celebrate it but I treat it as a milestone, to see how far I have gone and how much I have achieved since one year ago. I also use it as a start, by telling myself what I should be achieving next year, reflecting on what I have been doing and how I should improve. How about you? Are birthdays significant to you, or are they just boxes on the calendar which are completely redundant?

HCI NDP... (Term 3 Blog 4)

It has been a week since the HCI School-based NDP ended. All of us had a sense of satisfaction, since we done quite well and we made the parade a success as a whole and exhibited the true spirit of Hwa Chong Uniform Groups. It was indeed tiring, I must admit, since standing still for half an hour is not an easy thing to do, but we all managed to overcome the challenge of lacking the stamina. However, this was not the main attraction of the day. Instead, it was the line of performances prepared by the other CCAs. The members of Fencing and Wushu put up a show of sparring with one another, and it was kind of thrilling for all of us. Furthermore, other CCAs like NCC, choir (and more I can't remember) put up performances unique to their CCA, like the precision drill by NCC cadets. I particularly liked the NCC precision drill, although I have no idea why. I think it is probably due to the fact that I love neat stuff, especially if they are done in a group of people. I have no idea if it is because of my CA but I love it when things are done together in a team, when the members are united and doing their best. I could see that the NCC cadets had a hard time preparing for this since they had to coordinate properly and follow the pace of such a fast song (Dirty Little Secret). This goes to show that they are united as one and confident of their own actions during the actual performance. The final performance was by the choir, which I do not think was much except for the graceful voices which have been trained over the months. Personally, I felt that they were quite good, and was slightly annoyed when my friend was boasting about how he could do better.

All in all, I feel that the National Day celebration was a nice and memorable day. I am definitely looking forward to the next one, which will be coming in twelve months.

A little book you should read... (Term 3 Blog 3)

As I said in my earlier blog, I had not been motivated to blog for the past several weeks and now, I shall be officially spamming it. In this post, I will be writing a book review on a little novel I read a few weeks ago. It is a horror novel, and it is part of a series of ten books, so some of you might be interested to read it.

This book has the title of "Lord Loss", who is the one of main characters of the entire series of books. He is one of the many demon masters in the Demonata, which is the imaginary universe, the setting, in the story itself. He was the one who changed Grubbs' (the main character) life. In the beginning of the story. Grubbs was originally leading a normal life, just like any ordinary schoolboy. However, during his teenage years, he learnt that his family had an ancient curse, which goes back to the Celtic times. It was the curse of Lycanthropy, which will turn young members of the family into werewolves if not taken seriously. This happened to Gretelda, Grubbs' sister. There was no cure for the Lycanthropy curse, and the only way to relieve someone of it was to take him or her to Lord Loss, and fight with the latter in a game of chess (Lord Loss' favourite game). If the person or person's family member were to win, he would be cured of the curse. If not, everyone in question dies. This happened to Gretelda, and Grubbs' parents racked their brains for an alternative solution. In the end, they were still forced to meet Lord Loss in a battle of wits and strategy on five chess boards. Unfortunately, they failed and were slaughtered by Lord Loss and his familiars. This had a huge impact on Grubbs' life, making him swear revenge on the demon master. The story goes on as Grubbs meets his uncle Dervish, who happens to be a mage, and goes on an adventure, which is too extremely long to explain in a single blog post.

I would just like to say that this series of books is definitely not for the faint-hearted, since it contains an obscene amount of violence, blood and death. However, the plot is extremely interesting and situations come out one by one, thus leaving the reader in suspense. I am still waiting for the seventh book, which I have not gotten my hands on yet.

{Lord Loss}

-Darren Shan

HCI NDP Rehearsals... (Term 3 Blog 2)

It's been a while since I last blogged due to the fact that I could not really get the motivation to start blogging again, unlike the previous term, when I blogged regularly every week. Anyway, I will be sharing about the Hwa Chong Institution School Based NDP rehearsals for now.

I has been more than a week since the last rehearsal for HCI's own NDP ended. I think you would have guessed by now, that I was a part of it, a small tiny factor of the entire parade. The main thing itself was only a short period of 30 minutes, but as the Chinese idiom goes, "抬上一分钟，台下十年功". This goes to show that no matter how short the parade was going to be, we had to put in great amounts of time and effort to perfect our performance before we displayed it in front of the whole school. There was a total of three rehearsals, adding up to a total of around ten hours, apart from the usual practices during our normal CCA time. All these for only half an hour on the actual day itself. During the rehearsals, strict teachers like Mr Tan Chee Wee, Mr Shaun Yong and more were there to supervise us, as well as our seniors from JC. They took time out of their busy schedule to ensure that the parade would be a success. On the first session of the rehearsal, they were quite disappointed with our substandard performance, and gave us a long long debrief, informing us about what we could improve on. On the second rehearsal, we made a huge improvement, a great leap from the first, impressing both almost all the supervising teachers. On the third and final one, doubtlessly, we got to the standard Mr Tan wanted us to be at.

After the third and final rehearsal, I was looking forward to the actual parade, since it would be a totally different experience, according to my senior. In fact, on the Sunday night right before the NDP itself, I could not sleep until 1am in the morning because of my brain working "overtime" to imagine what might happen the next day. Anyway, I woke up in the morning the day after, game to conquer the challenges ahead.

June Holidays 1... (Term 3 Blog 1)

From the beginning of June holidays, I knew that I had no choice but to pull up my socks and work harder. Most of this June holidays was used to enrich myself in all aspects, especially Math. My undesirable result was mostly due to my Math papers, which was in turn caused by my underestimation of the test paper. I thought that the paper would contain questions I knew how to solve and instead studied for another test on the same day. On the day itself, I found that I was puzzled by many of the problems in the Math paper but did alright for the other one. My greatest regret for this term was to not study much for Math. My A2 last term boosted my confidence to do better for this term, but I instead grew over-confident. For the first two weeks of June, I concentrated on studying Math, and I am now quite sure that I can do better for my tests next term. I aim for better results next term, and I know if I work hard, I can.

The Thunderstorm Today... (Blog post #8)

Today, at around 9:30 am, there was a thundercloud overhead Hwa Chong. The sky grew dimmer by the minute and fat drops of rain started to pelter onto the ground like teardrops, leaving puddles of a transparent liquid collected in the indents on the ground. We threaded to LT3 reluctantly to carry on with our IH lesson.

We arrived at our destination minutes later, at the almost deserted lecture theater. The room was humid and an aura of disappointment hung in the air. After it seemed like eternity, pupils from 2i1 began to flood into the theater. The atmosphere became less intense as noise started to build up, and conversations began popping out.

The lesson lasted an hour, but it seemed to be longer. The fact that it was monotonous contributed to it. As we sauntered back to class, the rain seemed to diminish, as if parallel to our mood. The next lesson was Chinese, and we were all grateful for the change. For a moment, I thought the reign of the terrible rain was over.

When I arrived at home, I stared in shock at the aftermath of the thunderstorm. My windows were wide open, and my pillow was entirely wet. My alarm clock survived narrowly due to the protection given by the gallant tissue box, which was completely drenched itself. My test paper sat solemnly on the desk, the long red marks on it soaked through the paper itself, leaving ugly scars in the process. The weather aptly described how I felt at that time......

GE 2011 Again... (Blog post #7)

Recently, I have been posting a lot about the General Elections 2011, partly because I am very interested in politics and also because this year's election is extremely meaningful. Being the only election in which the PAP met a strong opponent, this is the most significant election since independence. I will now be talking about my feelings towards this year's elections.

In this election, the percentage of votes won by the PAP dropped by a huge amount. One of the reasons is because they have a strong opposition this year, Worker's Party, and another being the two most senior ministers, MM Lee and SM Goh, launched personal attacks on Mr Low Thia Khiang and Mr Tan Jee Say respectively. This earned them the public's displeasure, thus leading to their number of votes dropping.

In this year's elections, some of the fights between PAP and the opposition are narrow, especially the one between Mrs Lina Chiam, representing her husband from SPP, and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin from PAP. Winning only by 114 votes, the residents of Potong Pasir demanded a re-election since the gap was too small. Personally, I feel that PAP should let Mrs Chiam take over Potong Pasir, since Mr Chiam himself has already been running it for 27 years ever since he won it over from the hands of PAP. In fact, he should not have gone to compete for Bishan-Toa Payoh and instead stay and continue his hold on Potong Pasir.

Another of the numerous elections I would like to highlight is the one in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. One of the members in the SDP team there is Mr Tan Jee Say, who was formerly SM Goh's private secretary. In his speeches, he mentioned his displeasure about the government, which was his main reason for quitting his job and joining the opposing political party. He even revealed the secret that ministers get a yearly bonus of 8-12 months worth of their monthly salary, which amounts up to 2 million or more. If he did not divulge this, we would never have known where the surpluses of our taxes paid went! In this election, however, Mr Tan's team only won 39.9% of the votes, probably because they were not strong enough to compete with the PAP team led by Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and they did not have specifically planned actions.

All in all, this election was a close fight between PAP and the opposition, and the next election would be even more interesting, whether WP will earn the public's vote and continue its hold on Aljunied or do badly in governing them and lose to PAP again. In this case, both parties will do their best in serving the people of Singapore so as to earn the public's consent.

GE 2011 Conclusion... (blog post #6)

The general election this year is the most meaningful one by far, for this is the only one in which the PAP faced a strong opposition, which won one GRC in the end. Ever since the GRC system started, Worker's Party is the first political party to win at least one GRC to their side and a total of six seats in parliament. They finally managed to break through the GRC barrier which was first set up by the 'kiasu' PAP to help them secure more seats in the parliament through lots of hard work and numerous persuasive rallies. The final result was PAP winning a total of 81 seats, WP winning 6 and none for the rest of the political parties.

Personally, I feel that SDP losing Holland-Bukit Timah GRC to PAP was kind of unfortunate. One of the members of the SDP team competing for Holland-Bukit Timah is Mr Tan Jee Say, who was formerly SM Goh Chok Tong's private secretary. In one of SM Goh's speeches, he launched a personal attack on Mr Tan for 'betraying' PAP ad joining the opposition. I have seen Mr Tan's rallies online and his plans were detailed and far-sighted, especially his $60 Billion National Regeneration Plan. He was one of the potential candidates SDP had, but still lost to Mr Vivian Balabalakrishnan, fielded by the PAP.

According to The Straits Times, there will always be four scenarios in an election.

1: Opposition wipe-out.

In this scenario, PAP will continue to think that its policies are correct and perfect and there will be disagreeing voice in the parliament, which means PAP will continue on whatever policies it has, even the wrong and detrimental ones. In this case, the next election will be extremely dangerous as the people of Singapore will be extremely unhappy about PAP's dominance.

2: Only SMCs to opposition.

In this scenario, there will be an opposing voice in parliament but not strong enough to effectively resist PAP's wrong decisions. If this happens, PAP might continue with its wrong policies despite the opposing voice and might earn the public's unhappiness too.

3: One GRC to opposition.

This scenario is the optimal one, as one team from the opposition has already broken through the GRC barrier. This would mean a voice in the parliament strong enough to resist the government's decisions. This will also mean both political parties in the parliament will strive to do their best to improve the lives of the people in Singapore in order to secure their places in the next election so it benefits everyone.

4: Large portion to opposition.

In this scenario, there might be cabinet change, which is extremely undesired by everybody as it would mean a great loss of talented ministers already in the parliament, which will be extremely detrimental to Singapore in the long run.

In this election, the result came out as the optimal one, with six seats in total to Worker's Party. This will ensure that there is enough opposition in the government to resist or stop any wrong decisions by the PAP which would result in detrimental effects.

Worker's Party Rally @ Kallang... (Blog post #5)

Yesterday, my family and I went to the Worker's Party's Rally to have a new experience, entirely different from the one at PAP's rally. Apparently, many more people are interested in what WP has to say rather than just listening to PAP droning on and on about their past achievements and the benefits of voting for them. When we reached Kallang Sports Stadium at 7 pm, we found that the whole stadium was already packed with people and with many more standing outside, trying to take a peek of what was going on in front. As for my family, we were forced to spread a groundsheet and sit on it for the entire duration, without a hint of what was going on in front. We were only able to hear the speakers share their thoughts and opinions and the benefits of voting for them. One distinct difference was that the people viewing the WP's rally cheered and supported WP without any prompt while the PAP supporters only cheered and whistled upon a shout from one of the PAP members. This just goes to show how unpopular PAP is right now.

In the past, PAP was in WP's position, and they had about the same number of supporters, according to my father. However, they had much better policies and insights for future Singapore, especially Mr Lee Kuan Yew, also heading the party back then. Now that WP is in PAP's position in the past, they will have to work harder to win the public's hearts.

According to my parents, Worker's Party has several potential candidates with high education standards to match some of PAP's. In fact, I think that they will win Aljunied GRC and perhaps Kallang too. However, MM Lee Kuan Yew mentioned that if the peopel of these towns voted for WP, he would wish them "good luck" and give them 5 years to ruminate and regret their decisions, which he is confident that they will. I feel that he should not have said this. By saying this, he is insulting the capabilities of the members of WP and also doubting their abilities of governing as well as the PAP themselves. Moreover, this just displays the fact that he has no sportsmanship.

Personally, I respect the PAP for governing Singapore well for the past 50 years, especially MM Lee Kuan Yew who practically devoted his whole life to politics to help improve the living of the people in Singapore as well as upgrading our living conditions.

PAP Rally At Aljunied GRC... (blog post #4)

Just yesterday, I went to Aljunied Sports Stadium at 7pm to view the rally speech given by Mr George Yeo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and his team. Apparently, the Worker's Party is much more popular at Aljunied as according to my parents, the Worker's Party held their rally the previous day. During their rally, the stadium was full at around 6pm, and at 7, people who still came in had to stand on the football field as the stands were all full. However, when PAP held theirs, my family still managed to grab some seats at 7pm, with our food which we bought. Moreover, the papers even stated that PAP had to use coaches to bring in people who initially did not want to go to the rally to make up the crowd and force them to stay there and support the speakers. This really shows how well the opposition is doing and how unpopular PAP is.

According to my parents, a group of people behind them were complaining that "PAP cheated them". The reason behind this was that in the previous election, Mr Goh Chok Tong stated that he would set aside a total of around 200 million dollars to upgrade the estates in two of the towns in Singapore. However, he did not do so afterwards as one of his conditions was the voting for him by the majority of the people. This only earned him the discontent of those who voted for him.

Personally, I hope that PAP will win. Partially because they have several talented people as well as the experience of governing Singapore for already 45 years. Furthermore, they are the ones who developed Singapore from scratch and should deserve the position of the government of Singapore. Finally, I feel that we should be grateful to PAP for making Singapore what it is today, especially MM Lee Kuan Yew.

Assassin's Creed --- Brotherhood (Blog post #3)

Hello readers of my blog, it is high time I introduced the sequel to "Assassin's Creed --- Renaissance" to you. As you know in the previous post, Ezio is a hard-core assassin who makes it his mission to hunt down all of the templars. However, in 'Brotherhood', he decides that his foe, Cesare, was too strong as he had the French's and his aristocratic father's support to end the reign of the assassins. In order to counter this, Ezio builds up his own army, mainly people who were against Cesare and those who have been tortured by him. Also, he seeks help from people famously known in history (might be a little fake) like Niccolo Machiavelli (writer of "The Prince") and Leonardo Da Vinci.

In 'Brotherhood', Ezio starts on his journey to Monteriggioni, his uncle's fortress, to defend it from Cesare's all-out attack. However, they could not hold out and Ezio's uncle lost his life there. Determined to avenge his uncle, Ezio flees to Rome with his brotherhood, taking his family along as well. He then stayed there for a long time, spending his time thwarting Cesare's plans. Ezio was so close to capturing Cesare sometimes, but the main character just doesn't get to die so easily. After several confrontations, the assassins finally capture Cesare, only to let him escape after two years, while they were off guard. However, Ezio managed to use his piece of Eden to locate Cesare and his assistant, Micheletto, before trying to capture them once more. However, his ambushes on Micheletto always failed for the fact that Michelleto was well-trained. Finally, when the chance came, Ezio and Machiavelli took the chance to place bombs all over the military camp where Cesare was building up his army, delaying all his plans and actions. They then tailed Cesare to an inn, where they saw him kill his own assistant in cold blood for failing him. Finally, Ezio met Cesare in a final battle between both of them in a tall battlement where he and Casare fought to the death. He had the advantage of being much more highly skilled and experienced then Cesare, although he was sixteen years older (he was 46 by then). After engaging with Cesare in a long fight full of taunts, he finally injures Cesare and manages to throw him him down the battlement, leaving him to fate (he obviously died from falling from a few hundred feet). In the end, he, Leonardo and Machiavelli part to settle down with their own lives. Machiavelli's to write his book, "The Prince", Leonardo to invent and draw and him to carry on leading his brotherhood to eradicate the rest of the Templars, who just lost a worthy, ferocious and courageous leader.

(Anyone who wants to borrow this book can come to me... XD)

The Japanese Earthquake... (Blog post #2)

Personally, I feel that the earthquake in Japan was a real tragedy which caused many people grieve and suffering. Yes, I agree that they were extremely cruel back then during World War Two, but they have already paid the price for their commitments, two nuclear bombs razing two towns to the ground. However cruel they might be, the bombs had a greater effect on them then they did on us. It too punished the younger generations itself. The earthquake recently sparked off a heated discussion on various social networking sites. For example, some people truly pity the Japanese for having to go through such a disastrous phenomenon while others make crude comments like not being able to go on a holiday. Some people are donating money or helping them while others are busy praying that something worse happens. All in all, I feel that the Japanese really deserves to be pitied. A tsunami struck them little before the earthquake, followed by a great snow and nuclear reactor exploding. Are these just epic and sadistic coincidences or is there really a god up there punishing the Japanese for their evil deeds in the past?

Assassin's Creed --- Rennaisance (Blog post #1)

This is a new book I just read, and it is quite nice, since it is an adventure story with an awesome plot. This book is about an assassin, Ezio, whose family had been betrayed and exterminated by a traitor, who goes on a mission to kill those who betrayed his trust. In the meantime, he gets help from various people, whom he later knew were all assassins. The assassins were a small group of people, who were devoted to stopping the templars* from taking over the world. Only when Ezio was halfway through his mission than he realised that his life had a greater meaning than going around killing random people. He played an extremely important part in stopping the templars from gaining the pieces of Eden**, which they would use to overthrow the rule of every single leader of every state in Italy. His greatest mission was then to recover the pieces of Eden and keep them in safe hands. However, on his journey, he met with countless trials and tribulations but finally managed to succeed. This book has a sequel, , which I have not read yet.

*The Order of the Templars is an organisation trying to gain control of Italy and to get extreme power

**The pieces of Eden are extremely powerful items to be found and used only by two prophets of a specific generation

(Anyone who wants to borrow this book can come to me... XD)

HCI Annual Cross-country 2011...

As for this year's cross-country, I regret that I did not do my best. However, I am happy that at least one person gained something. As usual, I would have run with a group of people. However, I did not run with my usual group this time round. Instead, I ran with another person*, who was slower than the rest, who had no company to run with. In order to encourage him, I ran with him, hoping to motivate him to run faster.

At the beginning of the run, I saw him staying at the back of the crowd, looking slightly worried. I approached him, hoping to calm him down at least a little. He saw me, and started talking to me. Only then, I realised that he was one of the slower runners, even though he looks fit and strong. So, I decided to run with him.

During the run, he had to stop many times, and I obviously waited for him. However, after a few times, I started to encourage him to run. I would ask him if he were that tired that he needed to walk. He would reply 'yes' for the first few times. However, after a few times, I started to jog a little. He did not want to left behind as usual, so he tried to catch up. I tried to keep him from walking, but after running into the JC carpark, I knew he could not run further. So I waited for him and passed him a bottle of water. He drank a mouthful, and continued running. After a minute or two more, we reached the track, extremely near to the finishing point. Somehow, I managed to get him to sprint the last fifty meters and he even ended up in front of me!

Finally, we reached the end. We sat on the the grand stairs,talking for a minute or so before proceeding towards the Milo van for a little cup of cold Milo which would replenish our energy lost. In a nutshell, I feel that what I did was right, even though I could have done better, it is still better to finish together with another person, who was in that position because of me.

My term 1 LA test...

As for term 1, I don't think I did very well as I did not really focus on improving the range of vocabulary I used. In stead, I focused more on sticking to the point given in the question. Compromise. I used simple vocabulary and not the beautiful and descriptive phrases I usually do. However, I feel that I did a good job in sticking to the point of compromise and describing it. Overall, I feel that I could have improved my essay if I had more time to read over it and edit some of the simple phrases and words I used.

A book you should really read...

Today, I am going to recommend to you a book, which you should really read. you can borrow this book at the library, to save you the money of buying it. Samuel read this, and he is now on his way to the sixth book, which is actually kind of an achievement for someone who reads Chinese books all day long.

This book is "Cirque Du Freak", written by Darren Shan, who is also the main character in the story. "Cirque Du Freak" means circus of freaks in English. It is about two young boys, Darren and Steve, whose lives will be changed dramatically due to a small mistake. It is actually a book from a whole series, which is actually talking about how an ordinary boy turned into a vampire and all his adventures. This book is really worth reading as it is a half-horror and half-adventure story, and that it has a really good plot. However, the downside of it is that is has a range of bad grammar throughout the whole story. So don't embark on this book unless you know that your grammar is good and that you will not be affected by it's 'perfect' grammar!

So there. I hope that you guys will start reading Cirque Du Freak and know about the adventures Darren will go through and the tribulations he will face on his journey. Remember, it does not have the good English that you would want to write in your compositions!

My views on racism in the world now...

In my opinion, having to eliminate racism in the world completely is practically impossible. This is supported by the evidence that there was racism in the world centuries ago (genocides by the Germans on the Jews), and that there will still be racism further on in the future. Take the current situation for example, if you were given a choice to sit beside a Chinese or a Malay in a bus*, who would you choose to sit next to? Probably the Chinese right? This is an example of racial discrimination and marginalisation. However, as everyone can see, the world is currently progressing towards a less racist society. In the past, a Malay probably would not be able to survive in a Chinese school without being bullied discriminated against for one year. However, it is now possible, as a few have already daringly taken on this 'feat', and succeeded. Also, everyone can see that USA is now not as racist as it was decades ago. In the past, a black man would never be able to get a place in the government. But now, Mr Obama is happily lodging in the white house, taking on the honourable and respectable role of the president of the USA. This all proves that the world is now moving on towards a less racist society.

*This idea was adapted from Shao Xuan.

Anyone is guilty who watches this and does nothing

I feel that this statement is true, that when one sees others being discriminated against, doing nothing to help is wrong, especially when you know the person. Just picture yourself being taunted and teased by some people just because of the fact that you are Chinese and you speak differently from them. Would you like your classmates to watch and laugh, stand aside and do nothing or take your side and comfort you instead of rubbing salt into your wounds? Just last year, we all had a similar experience, one in which our ex-classmate was a victim. Last year, because of his poor results, weird behavour and work attitude, almost all of us marginalised and poked fun at our our poor classmate, Xin Cheng. Few people would talk to him and listen to his explanation, while most just made jokes about him and how people would end up as "Xin Cheng Number Two" if they did not do well for their tests or homework assignments. In the end, people of other classes somehow came to know about it and some even went as far coming into our class to mock at him. I was one of the few, as I mentioned in my earlier blog post, who actually talk to him when I have some time. Even so, he ended up having to remain in Secondary one and repeating the year. I feel that my classmates should not have done this. Instead, they should have also encouraged Xin Cheng to buck up rather than continuing on his computer gaming. These people, who ignored him, are supposedly 'guilty', as mentioned by the quote, for not helping Xin Cheng in his time of need.

Strange Fruit

I feel that the writer of the song intentionally did not include the word 'lynching' in it because he wanted the 'southern gentlemen' to think about the song's true meanings and reflect on their behaviour instead of just dismissing it as another criticising and anti-racist song. Come to think about it. If you want people to take your words seriously, you cannot just stuff your thoughts right into their faces and expect them to follow. They will probably just laugh at you and ignore you, just like how Jia Xin ignores Shao Xuan when the latter(SSX) tries to pull his weight on the former(LJX). That is why I feel that the song without the word 'lynching' inside is more powerful and influential towards the people of the southern states.

Mississippi Burning

"Mississippi Burning" is a movie that very well depicts the scene of racism towards the blacks by the whites. It also displays the thinking of 'white supremacy', which was common amongst the people in South America at that time, around the 1980s. My feelings for the movie is neutral as I did not like some of the scenes, especially the disturbing ones. However, I did like the fact that I got to learn more about how the whites discriminated and marginalised the blacks, despite the only difference being their skin colours. Racism is a seriously weird business. Just come to think of it. Imagine you being just an ordinary Chinese man sitting in your room minding your own business. Suddenly, a gang of Japanese people come, pillage your house, and take you along with them. You are puzzled. However, you know your fate soon as you can see some of the Japanese holding rifles pointed at you. Would you like that? I mean, you're just minding your own business, not bothering them in any way. And they suddenly come and kill you just because of the fact that you are Chinese! How would you like that, seriously. Unless you're one of those who go 'lynching rocks!' everyday. :)

An ex-classmate...

Last year, we had a classmate who is not here now with us year to share our joy and happiness. His name is Lin Xin Cheng, and he was just like one of us in the beginning of the year, except doing a little bit worse than average. He was normal, no matter from what perspective you see him from. However, around midway through term two, one of our classmates introduced him to the extremely popular game which most of us play, DotA. At first, he was only slightly amused by the game. But shortly after, he started playing it. From a few games a day to a few hours. His results, of course, suffered a tremendous impact. In fact, he would not do his homework just to play DotA which resulted in him getting reprimanded by the teacher the next day. This continued on and on, until our form teacher, Mdm Lim, talked to him and counselled him. Only did she realise that Xin Cheng's results suffered due to his computer addiction. Apart from having his results deteriorating, Xin Cheng was so into his world of DotA that he even acted as one of the characters. For example, he would, at a random point of time, say,"I cast you a sleep spell!" At first, I thought he was just trying to be funny, but after some time, I realised that he was clearly addicted to DotA and that he really needed some help. I began talking to him, treating him as a friend. Most of my classmates treated him like a retard and continuously poked fun at him. I tried several times to get them to stop, but they would not heed me. In the end, Xin Cheng became extremely marginalised, with only a few true friends like Shao Xuan, Hao Yu and me. Finally, at the end of July, he decided to give up secondary one and repeat it this year. I feel that our classmates should not have made fun of him last year. Instead, we should have all encouraged him to quit his gaming and focus on his schoolwork. Making fun of him was wrong, but everyone loved it. This was an act of prejudice by my class last year, one which should have been stopped before consequences became too dire...

Paradise Resort

*The sky is azul blue, with fluffy cirrus clouds levitating above the islands. The sea is calm and crystal clear, as if a symbol of paradise. The coconut trees like guardians, loomed over the island, watching over the people enjoying the time of their lives there. There is a small boat floating on the peaceful sea, together with two people snorkeling and looking at the diversity of corals and marine life underwater. Soft powdery sand covered the island, which was decorated by huts and cottages. There was also a pathway lined by a fence at the shore, which links to the other side of the island. There were several people walking on the path, admiring the view of the heavenly island. Some others were strolling on the sand, experiencing the beauty of nature and the sea breeze. These are the pure enjoyments and relaxations the people on Paradise Resort enjoy.*

Never take things at face value...3

http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/2728059

Never take things at face value...2

http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/2727741

Never take things at face value...1

http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/2727593

Aunt Alexandra

~Aunt Alexandra~

Once an hour-glass figure,

Pinched in the waist, flared in the rear,

Always wearing protective garments.

Strict and stern

Expecting good discipline,

Reprimanding Jem and me always

For being disrespectful.

Like a hand in a glove,

She fitted into society,

But never into Jem’s nor mine,

Maintaining discilpine was all she concerned.

Atticus’ dear sister,

A rule to respect her was passed,

By her ever faithful brother.

Clickety clickety click,

Knitting was her pasttime,

Day or night,

When she wasn’t scolding us…

Prejudice

Know: Prejudice is a form of bias, an act of giving someone or something better treatment than that given to another of the same rank, standard or power. Prejudice is often formed when a person has a bad opinion or impression of the other person, thus giving him worse treatment and benefits. Prejudice is often based on quick but usually wrong judgments. There are many reasons for prejudice. Past year experiences, looks and maybe the person's habits or action might affect how people treat him or her.

What: I want to learn more about how prejudice affected the people in the past and maybe how it will in the future.