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