The Mercurial Tom

Solemn Love
By Yihan
2nd Draft

“I’ve Good News!”
No reply.

“Dr Armstrong, yer’there?”

On his desk, a note read: “Take care of Tasha, Ollie and Milson.”
There’s a million-dollar cheque for them.
"Better tell Armstrong about this," he remarked.

The assistant walked to the surgical instruments.

Then running out of the room in tears,
The door closed peacefully behind him.

____________________________________________________
55 Words

1st Draft

“I’ve Good News!”
The air was still.

“Dr Armstrong, yer’there?”
No reply.

On his desk, a note read:
“Take care of Tasha, Ollie and Milson.”
There’s a three-million-dollar cheque for the three children.

Darrell walked near the surgical instruments.
And saw it.

Running out of the room in tears,
The door closed peacefully behind him.


____________________________________________________

55 Words
Image Courtesy of: iStockPhoto

55 Influence

55 Influence
By Yihan

"Next Week: We'll be doing – Micro Fiction".
A story 55 Words long.
"And how on earth’s that possible?"

But turned out to be possible.
Sounds difficult.
Yet so easy to write.

The week’s passed.
With me: 3 fictions done; 1 more to come.
Even this entry’s just that short,
and done in 20 minutes straight.

_______________________________________________

55 Words
Image Courtesy of: iStockPhoto .

The Peacock

The Peacock
By Yihan

"This million-dollar deal is CRITICAL.'
Silence. Clients? Unconvinced.
Waving his hands furiously, he repeated, "This's CRITICAL'.
Still Silence.

"Goodness! It's CRITICAL!'
Finally someone spoke. "How's this convincing?"
Deliberate Impatience. The CEO slammed the table and firmly announced, "I'll SHOW you."

He turned to fumble his documents.

Shuffles.
The CEO looked up.

Swivelling chairs.
Closing door.

55 Words

__________________________________________________________________

1st Draft
"This million-dollar deal is CRITICAL.'
Silence. Clients? Unconvinced.
Waving his hands furiously, he repeated, "This's CRITICAL'.
Still Silence.
"Goodness! It's CRITICAL!'

Finally someone spoke. "How's this convincing?"
Deliberate Impatience. The CEO slammed the table and firmly announced,
"I'll SHOW you."
He turned to fumble his documents.

Shuffles.

He looked up.

Swivelling chairs.
Closing door.

53 Words
________________________________________________

Image Courtesy of: iStockPhoto

SAM Visits - Art Appreciation

I have no idea how this is related to Language Arts, but maybe it is because LA has the word 'Arts' in it, I guess this post shall do. It was, in rudimentary terms, a workshop that was held over a span of two Wednesdays, each with a session of 1h30min, fully sponsored by the school. The two Wednesdays are 22nd and 29th April, both of which brought me much knowledge towards Art Appreciation.

We went through intensive studies of artworks currently stored in the many great galleries within the museum walls. It turned out that the curators had the tedious job of having to replace the exhibitions with new artworks purchased globally every 3-4 months, and hence the exhibitions are for temporal display, afterwhich it would go into the museum storehouse - which stores around 7000 works.

Each exhibition will have a theme (the previous one was named: "Daimler Art Collection") - this time round, it was: Earth and Water. The galleries feature all kinds of works of different media from artists all over Southeast Asia; some of which are 3D Art Works taking up full fractions of gallery display space. One of the curators was put in charge of bringing us through museum tours and thereby explaining the history and connotations the artworks represent. It turns out that the artists paint out of need - out of the urge of necessity - for none of the artworks seem artificial. They depict vivid scenes of various milestones in SE Asian History in mainly the 20th Century.

We even had to do our own presentations on some artworks which we studied carefully. Through this intensive course, I could better understand and appreciate
artworks presented in various forms of media. And how fruitful it has been.

(Entry best viewed with Windows Vista 2007)
Photograph Courtesy of: istockphoto

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:

[

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

]

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...