Parent's Response to e-Bookshelf

Firstly, here is the link again to my eBookshelf.

Okay. This blog entry is basically to get this other point-of-view about my electronic bookshelf: from my mother. Here is what she thinks:

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" This is an innovative way to encourage the habit of reading. Hopefully the children will carry on this habit after leaving school. Thank You."

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Right, I know that it is a rather short piece of opinion from her. I suppose you will understand what is phrased in just a matter of a few words :). However, right up till today, I still can't seem to understand the meaning of maintaining such a bookshelf - for exam marks?

Nevertheless, I guess my mother is rather on a neutral scale (maybe it is because she is busy when I asked her). Anyways, even if it means I do not understand why I am keeping an electronic bookshelf, it sure doesn't hurt to maintain one - keep a lookout for updates on the shelf =)!

Mother's Memorable Read

I have never known that my mother enjoyed reading English books. In the past, she was brought up in an almost completely Chinese Environment. Most of her childhood was spent under chinese exposure, so it was really unexpected that she did have a favourite english book.

Okay, now on to the book itself. It's title is: The Secret Island by Enid Blyton. Actually, she cannot really recall what the story was really about, but that was the first answer she gave me when I asked her the question. Apart from that book, she has also read classics like Gulliver's Travels, Aesop's Fables, Treasure Island and the like.

From her response, I can only conclude that she really enjoyed reading when she was young, and this includes a wide spectre of books from various genres. Hitherto, I have finally found out her real passion to books when she was young.

Perhaps this was my mother's first response simply because of the title, which could have caught her eye both when she was young, and emerged from her memory when she was answering my question. My mother enjoys exploring (even now, she loves to go overseas because she likes adventures) and maybe the title of the story suggests mystery and adventure.

On the other hand, it could also be because of this book that she began to enjoy adventures. Whichever it was, I suppose my mother remembered this read after so many years also because she found it meaningful. I have read Enid Blyton's stories when I was a pre-schooler, and I am fairly aware that Enid Blyton can create stories that seem so vivid. This is why my mother can still recollect these memories after so long.

However, she told me that it was also because she wanted to improve on her English (Don't forget: Chinese environment) and Enid Blyton's books were considerably thicker and her stories are longer; my grandfather bought many other series of such books for my uncles and my mother so as to raise their standards of English.

I believe that this book would stay in my mother's memories for a long time to come, and in the meantime, I guess she has many other more books in mind;

That would be another story.

(Image courtesy of: istockphoto)

Braced myself for these Braces

It has been quite some time since I last blogged, but anyways, it was today that I put on metal things that would last me for another 1 and a 1/2 years. Agonising...

It is already aching really badly - and so far, I don't see any improvements from how my teeth are aligned. Also, I didn't know that putting on braces costed more than $3000, and it took the dentist 45minutes to do all the assembling of the braces. I assumed that he would put some form of anaestatic substance onto the oral region, but no, he proceeded to put them on - that was something I did not expect.

Now, I would have to go for cleaning appointments on a monthly basis, and I must go on a soft diet, and my front teeth cannot close or it would hurt really badly, I must use a special toothbrush to brush my teeth, the metal pressing against my teeth is really aching - it is just so hard to adapt to these overnight. I wonder if sleeping would be a trying experience because it aches consistently, and it does not seem to die down at all.

I suppose my schoolwork would be compromised on - because I cannot concentrate on my work with the pain going on. And how am I going to play the saxophone in my school band with these on? I really don't know, and I don't really know why I am complaining to a blog either.

Maybe it is because I have just started with this and am not yet experienced - amateurism. If you can offer me any form of advice (except to remove them), please comment. I would be more than appreciative to hear from you.

In the meantime, I would have to bear the pain. Thank you in advance..now why does my mouth taste of blood...

Confession of a Terrible Accident

As the saying goes, "Time Heals All Wounds". It all happened on the 26 April 2005, and now, I do not feel much ashamed to share this openly, but nonetheless, I shall keep the names involved at a discreet level (but all the ex-TaoNanites from 3G'05 will know what it is all about.)

As I used to have this bullying target in class, alike almost all my classmates, who is recognised for his quiet and introvert personality. Now, I do admire him for this exceptional trait of his, for when he is teased or bullied in class, he doesn't utter a word and sometimes joins in the fun =).

Nonetheless, there was this fateful day, this one fateful day, the whole class was told to complete an English Practice Paper under the supervision of a relief teacher, and it was because of this relief teacher that made me start all my mischief. This classmate of mine likes to be known as Tom H** (I feel that even his nickname is something I must keep a secret), although his real name is completely different from this, trust me. =)

Under the control of my mischief, I took out my stapler, and out of fun (seriously, I had no cruel or 'inhumane' intentions) and guess what I did? I opened the stapler and for no apparent reason, I whacked the stapler down onto his head, k maybe not 'whack', but 'hit'.

So he turned around and out of my wildest imaginations, he felt his scalp and showed it to me. Upon seeing it, my blood froze. It turned out that a staplet had been placed perfectly in his scalp, with some bleeding. Therefore, the case was reported to the relief teacher, who in turn informed the Disciplinary Mistress and wow, I got a 2.5 hour-long lecture with her (DM) standing in front of me and with a cane behind her back. But come on, trust me. The cane was just for show, because I know that she cannot carry out any form of punishment unless my parents' allow.

Anyways, Tom got fetched to the hospital by his grandfather, to get the staplet removed. But to make things worse, the day after, 27 April 2005, was our SA1 Composition Writing Examination Paper. Thankfully though, he was fine. But one thing for sure, I felt really remorseful.

And from that day onwards, we shook hands, and became the best of friends (although some of my ex-classmates still used to pick on him then still). In fact, he scored a higher mark than I did in the Composition Exam.

You know, actually, all these sequence of events just show this:
Tom is the ground, and my classmates and I were the people trampling on it, but what is not known to us is that, under this seemingly peaceful piece of land, underlies some of the most nasty mines. What happened to me? I was unlucky enough to step on one of them, and although this mine exploded and he got hurt and so did I; we, Tom and I, still turned out to be the best of friends.

Science For Fun Enrichment Activities

Colour Changing Milk Video

This video features the entire process whereby my teammate and I carried out the experiment.
Please enjoy =).

Sec 1 Annual Camp at Sarimbun Campsite

This, to be really honest with you, has been the most extreme camp I have ever been through - this camp has genuinely left me with strong, mixed emotions and has made an ever-lasting impression in my memory; but why do I say so?

Okay, the reason is really simple =). I, together with my camp groupmates, have been through some seriously unprecedented encounters and experiences:

1. The encounter in the common toilet on the first night
2. The devastating incident on the second night
3. The huge hole in our A-hut (15)
4. The camping experience as a whole
Let me cover each part on a case-by-case basis.

Firstly, the encounter in the common toilet, which was meant for the campers of Outram Secondary School and St. Patrick's School, on the first night. At around 4.40a.m., a couple of hours after the ghost-storytelling session by one of our roommates who was at Sarimbun for the 7th time, my friend sleeping on my left started, as usual, shining the torch in my eyes in the attempt of waking me up.

He told me that he needed to go to the toilet, and after much reluctance, I accompanied him to that common toilet. We were told to go in pairs, and I was glad he woke me up, because when I was waiting for him outside the cubicle, with a torch in my hand (I'm not sure if he heard it), I heard a slow, steady series of knocks on the 3 metal pipes of the common shower, and the knockings took turns. Then, one of the showers (the one furthest away from me), started to spurt out water, bit by bit, without any warning. That seriously freaked me out. (By the way, if you visit the Scout's website, look under 1966, and you'll find that the Sarimbun Campsite was built.)

Okay, now to the second encounter. We were sleeping in our A-Hut, and at around 2.40 a.m., my other roommate shone some torchlight in my eyes and I woke up only to find another one of my roommates lying motionless on me. I found out that he was bleeding on his cheeks and temple. Shocked. Real shocked. I told that guy (keeping names in discretion) about it, and we ran to the White Tentage, where we found a couple of trainers still there.

So we related the condition of our friend to them, and two of them ran with the First Aid Kit in hand, and informed the Camp Chief, who later informed the Camp Commandant, a teacher from our school. We found out how he got injured and hmmm...maybe I should pay him a visit soon.

Anyways, the 3rd part. Not such a big issue here, but when we entered our A-Hut, we found that some nice people had helped us by bearing a nice big hole in the bunk, and causing us to have to share the remaining space in the A-Hut. I shall exclude the minor details (:.

And finally, the main part of this entry: the camping experience as a whole. Naturally, I would say, that the trainers have done a good job; I mean, at first, I thought that the camp was terrible, but after the camp, I found out that I could "act faster, move faster, chop chop"..(my trainer's motto). They have been really strict, which is both good and bad, and I presume you know why. Things have been done in a rather rushed pace, so there I suppose it was because we did not have enough time, but I would not want the camp to get any longer either.

But generally, I wouldn't really mind to get back to InnoTrek (the organiser of this camp) and have another camp, but not like the one I had, because it was too hurried. Right, I cannot think of any conclusion at this moment, I close this entry with a quote from my trainer:"From mistakes we gain experience, and from experience we avoid mistakes". And that's a memorable camp.



Photo From:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/nature/5489573-camping-at-the-lake.php?id=5489573

Term 1 in Conclusion

Perhaps I would like to start off with just one general statement: Why do people blog? Well, as of me, I must say that this is like an electronic diary, one example? I did my entry on behalf of Philip Malloy (click here to view it).

With the blogging tool at hand, I can easily put my thoughts onto this electronic platform by just typing (typing is faster than writing, isn't it?) Blogging is an avenue for me to express my thoughts - and at the same time - allow others to read and share their thoughts.

This is both good and bad, because you will know how others feel of your entries and you can ammend them accordingly and improve on them, but it also has a flipside - what I do not like about blogging is that they can be read by the world, so that means almost zero privacy, and you cannot write anything that is deemed private and will have to keep all your private entries to yourself. Maintaining a blog would also mean that you cannot write freely - you have to take into consideration the feelings of others - so you have to hide certain things and abide by our class's RBP.

On a personal note, blogging can be improved by simply limiting the number of people who can read your blog - in this case 1A1 and Mr S. (got to keep it to one letter, because of RBP). See? Blogging has its limitations and because it is mandatory to set up and follow the RBP, we have our limitations when blogging, which means we cannot express ourselves freely, pick the right words, etc... This could be an area to be improved on: Limit the number of readers who can access your blog.

Now moving on to the relationship between the reading habits and the electronic bookshelf. Anything that has been put on the electronic bookshelf (e.g.: The Favourite Reads) depends on our reading habits; and whatever we type on our blog depends on how we interpret things - our reading habits comes into the picture again. Also, the electronic bookshelf allows readers to understand your personality by accessing the books you have read before - the content of the books will show your personality, which in turn leads you to the way you write your blog. See this inter-relationship?

By the way...

Given topics to cover:
1) a general reaction statement	2) likes and dislikes regarding your blogging	3) how this whole process could be improved	4)statement regarding the tie-in of your reading habits/elecctronic bookshelf to your blog