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.