Tuesday, June 30, 2009

It home learning 2

Fovourite poet: Edward Estlin Cummings
Some facts about him:
Date of birth: October 14, 1894
Bornt in: Cambridge Massachussets
Father: Edward Cummings, was a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Harvard University.
Died from: Cerebal hemorrage

Some of his works:

Ballad of the Scholar's Lament

When I have struggled through three hundred years
of Roman history, and hastened o'er
Some French play-(though I have my private fears
Of flunking sorely when I take the floor
In class),-when I have steeped my soul in gore
And Greek, and figured over half a ream
With Algebra, which I do (not) adore,
How shall I manage to compose a theme?

It's well enough to talk of poor and peers,
And munch the golden apples' shiny core,
And lay a lot of heroes on their biers;-
While the great Alec, knocking down a score,
Takes out his handkerchief, boohoo-ing, "More!"-
But harshly I awaken from my dream,
To find a new,-er,-privilege,-in store:
How shall I manage to compose a theme?

After I've swallowed prophecies of seers,
And trailed Aeneas from the Trojan shore,
Learned how Achilles, after many jeers,
On piggy Agamemnon got to sore,
And heard how Hercules, Esq., tore
Around, and swept and dusted with a stream,
There's one last duty,-let's not call it bore,-
How shall I manage to compose a theme?

Envoi

Of what avail is all my mighty lore?
I beat my breast, I tear my hair, I scream:
"Behold, I have a Herculean chore.
How shall I manage to compose a theme?"

a total stranger one black day

a total stranger one black day
knocked living the hell out of me--

who found forgiveness hard because
my(as it happened)self he was

-but now that fiend and i are such
immortal friends the other's each

Humanity i love you

Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shops and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down

on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you


My reflection:

Cummings has different style of writing as you can see from the above poems. Some are long and some are short. There are a few events in his life that caused him to change his style of writing. Namely, his marriage, his father assassinated and mother's death. His father's assasination caused him to be deeply grieved and traumatised. He witnessed his father's assassination wih his own eyes. From then on he wrote a few poems that was grievous. However, he overcame all these difficulties when he finally got married, he felt like he was 'bornt again' ! He was very cheerful, shown here:

i thank you God for most this amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

ee cummings

He was happy again...

It home learning 2

Monday, June 29, 2009

It home learning

A poem that i lke.

Humanity i love you by E. E. Cummings
Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shops and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down

on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you

Figuritive language is used when, the author uses 'humanity' and writes it as if it were a human.He tries to imply personification. He kept on saying he loved it. In the 5th paragraph, it had used the word 'sitting down'
I like this poem as it is very soulful and it brings out the writer's feelings of humanity. It also describes how humanity is all about in figuritive form, this poem has open up my eyes and let me see what humanity really is. Although, it may not seem the same to you but i find it quiet riveting. I also like the way he uses contradicyion in his poem. The way he implies the figuritive elements into his poems make me like it even more. This poem is unlike nursery poems. Normally, i would think that poems that rhyme is nice, i did not know this kind of poem is also as nice!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Blog Prompt 12


Blog Prompt: Is failure the road to success?

Answer: For me, i think that failure is indeed the road to success. There are many examples.
  • 27 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.
  • Jack London received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.
  • Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely dea
  • Charlie Chaplin was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because his pantomime was considered "nonsense."
  • Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
  • After Carl Lewis won the gold medal for the long jump in the 1996 Olympic games, he was asked to what he attributed his longevity, having competed for almost 20 years. He said, "Remembering that you have both wins and losses along the way. I don't take either one too seriously."
  • Babe Ruth is famous for his past home run record, but for decades he also held the record for strikeouts. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career (about which he said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."). And didn't Mark McGwire break that strikeout record? (John Wooden once explained that winners make the most errors.)
  • Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, "I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed."
  • Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was "sub-normal," and one of his teachers described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.
  • Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."
There are many more other examples, these are just like planet earth in the galaxy!

For me, i have also failed before. When I was in Primary 4, i was in one of the lousy class in Primary School. I thought that my future lies in Yusof Ishak and other neighbourhood Schools. However i did not give up, I knew i would not give in to such a minor setback. Now i am a proud student of hwachong instituition student!

In another incident, I was desperately trying to get into my basketball team. However, I was not given a chance by my coach to shine, however, when my chance came, i took it and my coach was very impressed with me and decided to put me into the basketball team.

After all this incidents, i have realised that failure is the road to success.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Is progess necessarily beneficial for society?

Blog prompt: Is progess necessarily beneficial for society?
I think that progress is not necessarily beneficial for society, however, a bit of progress might be beneficial to the society.

What I mean by that is that, now, the society is progressing way to fast from a plain old diary to a blog, a cup connected by strings to a handphone, from a fishing village to a first-class city(Singapore), from washing clothes in a river to using a washing machine, from watching television in black and white to high defination and full coloured, etc.

The society is progressing way too quickly. Although there are many advantages there are also many disadvantages.

Disadvantages
1. The rich would become richer and the poor would become poorer.
-As the society progresses, people would have to develop their resources even more quickly, so the rich would pry the land of the poor and turn it into beautiful resorts, factories, shopping malls, etc. They will receive huge profits but they would only give these poor people meagre sums of money, that cannot even afford them another home! The faster the society progresses there will be more of such incidents happening.

Advantages
1. Easier to complete activities.
-New innovations can help us.

2.Mor options to leisure.
-Singapore's resort.

So in conclusion, I hope that the society will progress but not so quickly.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Blog prompt 11


Blog Prompt: Confessions of a 10 year old child.


It was just a mere three years ago. I was just 10 years old. However it was an important year. I was in primary 4. My mum kept on emphasising(nagging) that it was an important year (she says it every year). She had just made a trip to 'popular' and had bought a whole pile of assesment books for the first term. It was rough. I had protested, rebelled tried whatever i could do to stop her from buying those books that i dreaded. Deep from my heart, i knew i could not stop her. I was resigned to fate. Why was it so unfair? My friend's parents had just bought him the newst gadget in town. Me? I did not even have a phone! There was a few words to describe me : Stressed, unhappy. I really wanted to gain revenge. Lo and behold, i had a few tricks right under my sleave!


First, I decided to relieve my stress by reading my book in the toilet, somewhere my mother would not find me. It was really a good way to relieve my stress that way! From then on, when i am extremely stressed i would use this trick!


Next, i decided not to give myself so much stress by compying the answers. (However i was found out by my mum, who always had suspicions for me, and she hid the answers the next time.)


For the revenge part, i decided to let my mother worry by coming out of school a litter later.( In the end i got a spanking from my father instead, how unfair!)


Now, i am 13, i realised that these actions were inmature and childish. However, I hope my parents will ease of me, after all i have proven my worth and entered the most pretigious boys school in Singapore,HCI! I also hope that my parents can be more proud of me too. I often see my parents friend, aunty mary, love her child so much even though she is not in a good class in her school. I really hope she is my mum! After all i think that study is not everything. I know that there is more meaning on earth than just studying or good results.

Blog Prompt 10




Blog Prompt: I would rather be a city rat then a country rat.
Left to right:
country rat, city rat.
In my opinion, this is a statement not applicable to me. I say that this statement is not true as being a city rat is dangerous. The only way to obtain food is to steal from the humans which is not adviceable as humans normally overreact when they see something that is not so pleasing to the eye. In order to avoid having an heart attack, they set up traps to kill the rats which they consider as dirty and filthy. I would not want to die such a terrible death! If I really were a city rat I would really have to freak out. Unexpected dangers everywhere you go! I really would not want to be living every minite of my life looking out for dangers!




The country rat, however, does not face as much danger as the city rat. The main dangers that the country rats have are stray cats and natural disasters, which do not happen very often. They do not need to steal food from the humans, all they need to do is to pick coconuts from trees or pick berries from bushes. Although it might not be as tasty as the food city rats get to eat, but it sure beats living everyday in fear and anxiety.
Thus in conclusion i think the country rat is a better character to be.




Monday, June 15, 2009

Blog Prompt 9



Blog Prompt: Who is your least favourite character in village by the sea.




For me my less favourite character would be Hari's father, Biju or the watchman of the factory . However my least favourite one would be watchman of the factory. He was selfish, arrogant and naive. He had a thought: These villagers are useless compared to us, the city from Bombay.


He thinks that the villagers were useless, good for nothing. The actual fact is that the villagers indirectly provide the city people with fish and vegetation and many other basic necessities.
This shows his arrogance and ignorance. One day when there will be lower productivity and higher demand for these basic necessities. The prises of these would rise and he would finally feel the pinch.
We teenagers of this generation are also in the similiar position. Being pampered, getting what ever we want. However we must be aware that we must never ever follow that watchman.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Blog prompt 8


Blog Prompt:Who is your favourite character in village by the sea.(State your reasons).


For me my favourite characters would be Lila and Hari. However if i have to choose between either of them it would be Lila. The reason being Hari had made a small mistake which is to run away from all his troubles, to the city of hope, the city of riches, Bombay. Leaving behind poor Lila to take care of the whole family.


The task that Lila had on hand was tough, very tough. It is an experience that you and i would probably not experience and would not want to have the experience either. She did not give up even though she knew that she knew that it was an uphill task, way uphill.


Miraculously she pulled through, she had saved her mother afer she had plucked her courage and asked Mr deSilva to help her. They later realised that her mother was suffering from anaemia due to malnutrition and had a bit of TB.


She had also helped her father. Her father was a drunkard a good for nothing man. However he had turned over a new leaf after he realised that mother was very sick. Thus Lila was indirectly helping a father.


She had also a hand in helping her sisters continue their studies after she hads worked at the de Silvas.


Without Lila, the family would evidently not pull though. However with her they pulled through.

Blog Prompt 7


Blog Prompt: Which part of village by the sea do you like the most?




For me, I think that the part where Hari returned home after the short stint in Bombay impressed me the most. Hari had decided to run away from home because of the mounting pressure on him. However he realised that running away should not be an option and came home. This part expresses the relief of Lila and how things went well for the family. There was joy, love, hope and many important aspect of life described there. It had concluded a very touching book very well.

That part also gives me relief after the first part of the book made me pity with the kids. It also tells us that behind every problem there will be a solution. As the saying goes ' behind every cloud there is a silver lining'. It has also told me that never to give up no matter how much difficulty you face. They faced with life and death difficulty. However we are only facing with homework difficulties. That is peanuts compared to Hari's problems.




Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Lebron James

I'm sure everyone has heard of the name Lebron James. Even non-basketball players would have heard of him. Recently, he won the much coveted award, the most valuable award. He had just led his team the Cleveland Cavailers to their best ever season. He is not just a good basketball player he is a magnificent one. One that nba will not see for a long time. So, I will pay a tribute to him by letting you all enjoy this video.:

Now, I hope you know more about him now, and have a different opinion about him. If you have any queries just ask me.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Dunks

Have you ever wondered if someone could break the rim while dunking and jump over somebody to dunk? here is the answer...



Hwachong school song

Now, u know your school's song!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Blog Prompt 6

Blog Prompt:


Write a personal recount about a time when you were so caught up in gaming that you neglected the people around you and how you came to regret your behaviour.


Reply:


I'm sure that many people have been caught up in gaming before. Some people might know the consequences but many might not. I'm writing on what had happened to me in the past and I hope that it can help those who are in similar position.


I was only 10. However gaming was already part of my life. By 11 I was already obsessed. Unstoppable. My parents were at wits end. They shouted, scolded and even gave me a harsh spanking but to no avail. They had no choice but to confiscate the gadgets. However that made me even worse...


Even without knowing 2 days later I was already at the arcade desperately trying to 'kill' the monster with the 'gun'! That continued for another 3 more months. Indeed, I was unstoppable.


However, with fear, the unstoppable became stoppable when my father gave me less and less money. One fine day he gave me none. Embaressment, the greatest thing teenagers probably fear. The day I changed, I realised how much I had wasted my time! A pile of my homework was not done, my room was in a mess and etc. I had regreted this short period of time and I will regret it for life.



From then on I decided to change my habits. I started creating my own timetable. However as the saying goes 'all work and no play make jack a dull boy' , so, instead i started playing basketball which gave me an healthy lifestyle.

So everyone out there seize your minutes and do not waste your time.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009