LA Expository Writing Exercise

Hello!

Since i've already done this and haven't got a chance to present this to the class, I might as well put it up here.

Basically, the question -- What makes a superhero?

Yup, so we were supposed to write a 150 ++ word essay on it. Unfortunately, although I tried to the best of my ability, I exceeded the word limit ):

Here goes!

What makes a superhero?

Forget all that rubbish about being invulnerable and being able to shoot electricity. Sure, super powers are one thing that most superheroes possess in order to enable them to carry out their duty, as the vigilante of their city, successfully. However, in reality, what superheroes really possess that distinguishes them from the average citizen is their exceptional character traits in the form of outstanding courage, their willingness to commit their live to maintaining law and order in a city and their sacrificial spirit.

Super powers do indeed assist the superhero in his/her duty. However, the traits of the superhero are what allows them to be superheroes and not villains. While superheroes commit to putting their powers towards a good cause, villains make use of whatever abilities they have to wreak havoc in cities and commit heinous crimes which the superhero has to attempt to successfully put a stop to.

Courage is an essential trait towards the development of a superhero. Sure, it seems so easy when you watch them defeat the villains on television. But what would you do if you were in their shoes? The probability of you turning and running away with your tail between your legs is exceedingly high. Now, do you think courage matters?

And how about the willingness to commit to upholding justice? To commit to completing any task is no piece of cake. And what’s more, with your life at stake everytime you attempted to foil the crafty schemes of the villains. Whatever the superhero is doing at the moment, he/she would have to throw it aside and rush to the scene of the crime whenever he/she receives an alert. As such, commitment is vital in defining a superhero.

Last but not least, the sacrificial spirit of the superhero. I reiterate the fact that risking your life to rush over and attempt to do battle with a villain (who in most cases, if not all, is probably more than 69 times stronger than you) is a severely uphill task for any mortal man. Like, who would want to give away their life in a matter of seconds?

After reading this, do you think superheroes are only built on the basis that they can fly, have prominent physical features, and have a large variety of superpowers/weapons? Certainly not.

That Time of The Year

Hello guys (:

it's that time of the year again, where exams arrive, various events take place, and people start mugging like crazy.

Cool.

The first event is the much-awaited Youth Olympic Games!

Here's a little bit of background information for those who don't read newspapers/watch news/have a general idea of what people around them are talking about.

Youth Olympic Games

Facts & Figures Country of host city: Singapore (YAY) Opening date: 14 August 2010 Closing date: 26 August 2010 3,600* young athletes between 14 and 18 years of age 5,000* young athletes and officials 205 National Olympic Committees 1,200* media representatives 20,000* local and international volunteers 370,000* spectators 26 sports and culture & education programmes yup. I think the sport which I paid the most attention to in the Youth Olympic Games was football. It was kinda funny when Zimbawe claimed that they would "sweep-aside Singapore 5-0" before the game. Why? Because Singapore took just 10 seconds to score their first goal, eventually outplaying, outmanoeuvring and outpacing a shocked Zimbawe. Following that was a 3-2 victory over Montenegro, and finally last night a match against Haiti. Haiti, the supposed underdogs in the match, played like champions, constantly pressuring Singapore for the ball. Hence, the match culminated in a 2-0 victory in Haiti's favour, a red card for Singapore and caused Singapore to miss out on a chance to win a gold medal once again. The sole consolation was that Singapore now have a chance to play for bronze in the third place play-off (idk when's that so don't ask me). The games aside, I think this time of the year was also the time where the best movies came out, although the movies due to be released at the end of the year look more than decent too. Inception was great, and so was Despicable Me/Step-Up. I guess Salt was the only disappointment, with too much violence and killings and no plot at all. Credit to the actors though. Heheheh. Though I shouldn't be watching movies now that the EOYs are coming! Ahhhh. Examination fever is currently running high too. With Secondary Two being the all important streaming year, coupled with Dr Hon's new Independent Studies/Oral Communication policy which prevents all failures from getting promoted to Sec3 IP, it would be impossible to say that any Hwa-Chongian didn't feel tense. I shall refrain from criticising the New IS/OC policy, furthermore when we had no knowledge of the consequences of failure in the system. I guess why I really posted this was really to just share my thoughts and feelings ... I think i'd be glad enough if i could get promoted to Sec3 IP next year.

YOUR MIND IS THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

Hello people!

I just happened to be surfing the net randomly when got inspiration, so yeah I think I'll blog about it quickly before I forget.

How many of you out there have watched the movie Inception?

Well if you haven't, I'd suggest you go and watch it as soon as possible, because it's one of the best movies I've ever watched, The Dark Knight aside.

And no, it's not because of Ellen Page

So basically the movie is about dreams. Familiar topic, eh?

To be specific, it's a dream within a dream within a dream ...

You get the idea.

The main character of the movie is Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio (I'm also very sure that many of you would have seen him in the Titanic.

But that's not the point..

The main idea of the movie is that in your mind, anything can happen. People can steal ideas, people can plant ideas (and that's the concept which is going to be explored in this movie) and do anything they like in your mind! And that all happens when you're dreaming. And when you wake up, you have no idea who interfered with your thinking.

Here's the thing about our Dear Dom. He can steal valuable and important information, ideas and secrets by entering their dreams via sophisticated technology. He also has a totem, an object which he carries everywhere, and he spins it while he is in dreams to see whether he is dreaming or if he is in reality. His totem is shaped like a top, and the idea is that if it spins continually, he is in a dream, but if it stops spinning, he is in reality. Also, he's working for a mysterious organisation called Cobol Engineering, which will not tolerate any failure to steal dreams. Later, you will find out that the stringency (such a word?) of Cobol Inc will lead to his desire to want to accomplish the mission for Saito.

Dom Cobb and his team of secret-stealers (I'm not sure if there is an official term for dream-stealers but anyway even if there is, I forgot) were sent to steal secrets from a wealthy businessman, by the name of Saito (he's played by Ken Watanabe btw). However, the plan backfired as Saito had already known what they were trying to do and he stopped them before they could steal his secrets.

Later, Saito told the team that it was actually a test, that he had actually allowed them into his mind to test whether they were good enough. I guess you can already infer from here that he wanted them to accomplish a task for him.

Now, in the movie, it was revealed that Dom Cobb had a history that he didn't exactly want to boast about. The projection of his deceased wife Mal (played by French actress Marion Cotillard) continually haunted him, foiling his plans every time he entered a dream world to steal secrets. Cobb was also unable to return to his hometown due to suspicions that he was the murderer of his wife. Hence, the connection established here was that Saito would be able to allow Cobb to return to his hometown if he accomplished a mission.

And the mission? The exact opposite of what Cobb had been doing until then.

Inception.

Cobb, delighted at the chance to return to his hometown, considers the proposal briefly and accepts it. From then on, he recruits Yusuf (Dileep Rao, who I had never heard of previously) as a chemist, Ariadne (Ellen Page) as an architect and Eames (Tom Hardy) as a forger. Basically, Yusuf's role is to design the sedatives to plunge the team into dreams, Ariadne's role is to design the dream worlds which they would be going into and Eames's role is to change his appearance in dreams (which would prove really helpful later).

Inception would be the art of planting an idea inside somebody's head, instead of stealing one.

So, their main objective would be to drug Saito's main competitor, Robert Fischer. His father, Maurice Fischer, was in poor health and the team's task would be to plant the idea inside Robert's head that he should break up his Father's company.

Following that, the team drugs Robert on a plane and each of them go into the dream (including Saito). In each dream level, one member of the team stays behind and the rest of the members proceed further to the next level of the dream. In the first level, Yusuf stays behind while the rest of the members go deep in, following that would be Arthur, and then Eames. At the third level, a number of things happen. Saito dies and goes into limbo, while Fischer receives the idea that his father wants him to live his own life, which means that the team has succeded. But now they have to get out of the dream. And something (or somebody) will make it difficult for them.

In the third level of the dream, Cobb's projection of his deceased wife Mal appears and shoots Fischer, which messes up their plans. Cobb and Ariadne then follow Mal and Fischer to the final dream level, limbo. Limbo is a level where nobody is the dreamer, where the people who enter a dream go when they die (albeit when they are under heavy sedation). To cut a long story short, Ariadne shoots Mal and makes herself and Fischer go to the third level of the dream by jumping of a building. That is called the kick. When you die in limbo, you will go up to the dream level above limbo, making you go closer to reality. However, if you die in any other dream level than limbo, you will go into limbo. Complicated huh.

Saito and Cobb eventually find each other and shoot each other, riding the kick all the way up to the surface. The scene there is the same scene as the scene at the beginning, with the clever use of the flashback technique used to build up suspense.

Eventually, Cobb succeeds in his mission and gets through customs all the way back to his hometown. He sees his children, whom he has missed for many years because he had to flee the moment the authorities suspected him of killing his wife. Meanwhile, the scene shows his totem spinning on the table, but the screen blacks out before the totem stops, leaving open the issue of whether Cobb is back in reality or still in his own dream.

Whew. That was tiring. But i guess i haven't really done a good job of explaining what happened in the movie even after writing so much. Still, i hope I've done enough to convince all the movie-fans out there to go and watch the movie yourselves! It's really easy to understand once you've watched it a few times. So there!

Sean.

Spare the rod, help the child?

Hello World!

it's been quite a long time since i last posted anything on my blog. Anyway, in short, this post will be about discipline, as the title suggests. Yup.

To begin, i'm really sure most of you kids/teenagers out there would have experienced punishment (or discipline, in a nicer way) in different forms. Caning, grounding, and so on. What's more, it takes place in school, at home, in the outside world (fines, etc, etc). But what is the main purpose of discipline?

Just to clarify, I shall be mainly focusing on discipline matters within the four walls today. Maybe discipline in the outer world may follow in my next post. But let's ignore that for the time being.

So why do parents discipline/punish their children? Mainly it's because their child has done something wrong, broken some rule, etc etc. But can you parents out there deny the fact that some of you punish your children simply to vent your anger on them? Say one day you came back from work, in a bad mood because something went wrong, and your child comes up to you and asks you "why is the sky blue?" And that, to some of you, is the "final straw". Your child becomes the butt of your anger, you thrash him/her repeatedly, ignoring his/her cries and totally forgetting the fact that your child knew nothing about your day at work. He/she did not mean to provoke you. There was no hypocrisy at all in his/her question, just childish innocence. Did he/she deserve the beating?

Of course, to look at this issue purely from the child's point of view would be unfair and biased, as I myself am only a teenager. I understand that sometimes children flout the rules and it would only be fair and just that they are given their desserts for that. That is undeniable.

Let us look at this from yet another angle. Say you punish the child every single time, whether it be over a trivial matter or over a serious issue. What do you think the result will be? Your child will grow up a defiant, angry person. Now, would any of you like to see your child turn out that way? I am sure, no matter how cruel a person can be, no parent would want to see their child have such a character.

Now, i hear you ask, then what should you do? The solution, really, is quite simple. Listen to your child. Talk to him/her more. Spend more time with him. And i assure you, as your relationship improves, you will not punish him/her unless there is a justifiable reason to. And he/she will accept it. And that is because what your child needs from you is really your support, your guidance, your advice! As parents, don't you feel that you should help your child?

As always, nobody is perfect. Children will always make mistakes. But there is no need to punish them so severely. Grounding, the removal of privileges, and so on! These are all various methods to teach your child a lesson. And the most important thing is that after you have disciplined your child, you talk to him/her and explain why you punished him. Tell him/her that what you did was for his own good, that he should not repeat his mistake lest the consequences of his error be severe.

To conclude, parents out there, please be aware of your child's feelings. We are humans too. Talk to them, spend more time to them. Advise them. And slowly but surely, you may totally abolish the need to punish and discipline them. Spare the rod, spoil the child? Maybe not.

Task 2 - Home Learning 25/26 May,

Hello people!

This is my second task, a follow-up from the first one. Enjoy!

Task 2
Complete the template provided in Annex A, focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

1)Point of view

2) Situation and Setting

3) Language/Diction

4)Personal Response

First of all, here's the poem:

Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

1)Point of View:
I think the poem was written from the point of view of somebody who had first hand experience in the Vietnam War, ie. the person had experienced fighting in the war before. It could be written by a soldier.

Evidence that the poem could be written by a soldier is that the persona explains and elaborates a lot about "agent orange", the toxin used largely in the Vietnam War. In the poem, the writer explains the effects of agent orange on people, such as that agent orange would result in illness, birth defects and premature death.

Hence, this shows how the persona understood the Vietnam War well and had experienced fighting in the War before.
2) Situation and Setting:
The setting and situation of the poem are most likely after agent orange was tried and tested in the Vietnam War. The persona's tone explains this as he elaborates on how bad an effect agent orange had on the war, causing illnesses, premature death, and such. The persona tries to show us how agent orange will affect the lives of the people exposed to agent orange, and why agent orange should not be used anywhere, whether in the war or somewhere else. Hence, the persona is trying to emphasise that agent orange is overall detrimental to the Vietnamese population and it should not be used anymore.
3)Language/Diction:
The writer and persona adopts a harsh, severe tone as he tries to show how war will have negative and detrimental effects on the Vietnamese civilians. By his language in the poem, especially when the writer uses the specific word "potpourri", we can pick up the tone of the poet. Since "potpourri", in this scenario, represents the many deaths of people because of the war, we can tell that the writer discourages war and is trying to bring across the consequences of war to the reader(s). Furthermore, the title "Rainbow Death" contradicts itself as death is usually not associated with something so positive like the rainbow. The poet could possibly be trying to say that the war is unpleasant as rainbows usually represent hope and death is usually representive of destruction. Perhaps, the rainbows could represent the herbicides used in the War. Hence, the writer could be trying to discourage the herbicides used in the war which would ultimately cause death and destruction.

4)Personal Response:

This poem is indeed skillfully written, using figurative language to convey an important message: that the consequences of war are never pleasant. Especially when a toxin such as agent orange is used. The poem is basically trying to convey the message that children can be orphaned, people can develop sicknesses, and the most obvious: lives can be claimed. And the source of this is just war. And war is only brought about when two countries only look out for their own interests and do not consider the feelings of the other countries. So the writer is trying to tell us that war can be prevented! There is no need for war at all if countries are not so selfish, if they are willing to sacrifice a bit to prevent war. In essence, the writer is trying to convince us to do our part to prevent war as the consequences of war will be harmful to everybody.

Okay that's all!

Task 1 - Home Learning 25/26 May,

Hey there (:

As part of the school curriculum, today i'll be writing a report on the conflict found in a particular poem, "Rainbow Death".

Task 1
Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.
Be sure to include your references and credit your sources.

Okay before I begin, i'm sure you all will want to know what the poem is about. Here's the link and introduction of the poem http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow.

Got it? Now I shall provide a brief introduction of Hubert Wilson, the poet. Hubert Wilbert was a Vietnam War veteran soldier, as were his four brothers. He served in the USAF Security Service and along with some intelligence school graduates, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, and expected to be sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia in 1970. However, eventually, Hubert Wilson was assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, an extremely run-down and contaminated area!

Because of this, Hubert Wilson’s health problems started with headaches and limb pains. His central nervous system's condition gradually worsened with tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains and the like. To top it all, no doctor could diagnose the specific illness which Hubert Wilson possessed. Hubert Wilson’s most accurate guess is that the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst caused him to develop such symptoms.

Now, on to the poem.

The rainbow death which is mentioned by Hubert Wilson in his poem actually refers to the Agent orange, the substance which caused him to develop so many health problems. But what was Agent Orange specifically?

Agent orange was a chemical substance used against Vietnam during the Vietnamese war. Agent orange was a herbicide and defoliant- contaminated with TCDD or Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin.

In short, both herbicide and defoliant have the same meaning -- they both refer to weedkillers, substances used to kill plants.

TCDD, meanwhile, refers to a type of environmental pollutant and it became known as the most potent compound during the Vietnamese War.

Now, close to 5 million Vietnamese were negatively affected by Agent Orange and which resulted in about 400,000 deaths among the Vietnamese people and deformation of countless babies at birth.

So in essence, “Rainbow Death” tries to show how harsh the consequences of war can be. In his poem, Hubert Wilson wants to show that even after war has ended, the impact of these wars on the people affected would remain. And people affected by the war once can be scarred for life. On top of that, Hubert Wilson also wants to show how terrible modern warfare can be. As we go through technological advances, inevitably, our weapons becomes more severe and ultimately, more destructive.

Yup that's all! Be sure to check out the poem people!

Recent News: Chelsea Crowned Premier League Champions Last Night

Hello football enthusiasts (:

I'm sure most (or all) of you would have heard about Chelsea winning the coveted Premier League Title last night after a failure to win it after three years, since they last won it in 2007. Manchester United's 4-0 thrashing of stoke was a mere consolation compared to Chelsea's 8-0 victory which effectively handed them the title.

Personally i'm a Manchester United supporter, and I feel that it is rather disappointing that they gave up the chance to be the first Premier League side to win four titles in a row. And the fact that when they lost, they were just one point behind Chelsea, makes their failure to win worse. Failing to capitalise on winning key games such as the 0-0 draw at blackburn caused their failure to win the title. Of course, their over-reliance on Wayne Rooney as a main striker also caused them to fail to win the title.

However, credit to chelsea for having a strong, experienced and skilled squad of players. From Didier Drogba, striker-in-chief, to John Terry, their captain and most consistent defender, Chelsea's squad is full of footballers oozing class and skill. Of course, their experience also played a vital role in helping Chelsea to win the title.

To conclude, I feel that sometimes, football clubs will be disappointed with what they have achieved, as is the case in the real world, but such disappointments are more or less inevitable. Hence, even from the fact that Chelsea have snatched the title out from Manchester United's nose, I have learnt that we should make the best of every opportunity and capitalise on any chances we happen to get. Because some things only come by once.