Pampered... Or not?

Posted in Mar 28, 2011 in Straits Times, a woman was photographed carrying the backpack of a soldier walking ahead of her. Since then, the picture had sparked off a heated debate about whether the current generation of youths, also known as Gen Y, is too pampered.

Most netizens were critical of the soldier, but a handful still gave him the benefit of the doubt, suggesting that he might have been injured. Personally, I think that the soldier was too soft and pampered, and not instead, injured. From the picture, I can see that he does not seemed to be suffering from any serious injury. If he did suffer from a slight injury, he should still be in the right condition to carry his own backpack. If he is in a war, an injury is inevitable, even if its just a scratch. And in that case, nobody would be able to help him carry his own backpack as they have to carry their own too and there would not be any maid to help.

I strongly believe that the soldier is just too soft and pampered. If he finds it too heavy, then I think that he did not receive enough training. Last year, during my OBS camp, I had to carry a backpack filled to the brim with filled bottles, clothes, rain coats, tentage parts, cooking pots, food, sleeping bags, other people’s stuff, and trek for 15km around Pulau Ubin. And I do not think that his backpack contains so much stuff. And if I can do it, so can he.

Pulau Ubin Trip

After much anticipation this morning, my classmates and I were off to Pulau Ubin to gather data for our project. Since I had never been to Pulau Ubin before, I could not wait to step foot on this unknown (well, at least for me) island.

I prefer standing on the deck of the bum-boat on the way to Pulau Ubin. It was extremely refreshing standing on the deck, with the wind blowing into my face and cool seawater spraying onto my legs.

In the blink of an eye, we stepped foot on the jetty of Pulau Ubin, greeted by a sign with the words "Welcome to Pulau Ubin" emblazon on it. As we make our way to the town center, I could not help noticing the numerous bicycle kiosk, lined up side by side as far as the eye can see. Bicycles must be a main form of transport around here. The sight of a cleaner with a blower in one hand and a bike in the other confirmed my hypothesis.

Very soon, we were on our way to Balai Quarry, the most famous quarry on Pulau Ubin. The sight stunned me. It was so gorgeous, the lake of the quarry separated from the sky only by a stretch of forest. The water was so clear that you can see the reflection of the puffy white clouds in the water.

Our team make a long track to the Malam Beach, which was equally beautiful. You can stop and admire the rather cloudless sky and clear seawater here, which could hardly be seen in a busy city like mainland Singapore. Although we can still witness a cloudless sky anywhere in mainland Singapore, we were all so busy minding our own stuff that we hardly noticed the beautiful sky.

During a toilet break at the solar powered toilets beside the beach, we saw a wild dog wandering near a tree, and to much of our amazement, it did a "big business"! It must be shy with a dozen and one students watching, as it quickly moved off from its natural toilet. All of us had quite a good laugh after such a long and tiring journey and we were energized instantly.

We made a wrong turn as we journeyed towards Noordin Beach, only realizing about 15mins later after arriving at a familiar spot that we had came across earlier in the morning. After a short break (and much cursing and swearing), we made a U-turn back to where we came from towards Noordin Beach. More curses would ring out when we arrived at the beach just to discover that it was under "renovation". Devastated, we returned to the town center, only to stop at the village elder's house for another water break. After a short discussion, we decided to return on a min-van.

The adventure at Pulau Ubin ended with a big feast at a food stall in the town center. We "camped" there for a while before returning to school.

Greatly disappointed

The YOG torch arrived at our school last Wednesday morning. I was expecting something fun, something exciting, something that won’t be a waste of time to me.

What turned out to be a great disappointment. We waited for approximately one hour for the torch to arrived, only to discover that the “torch” is actually a lantern, not a ... torch. The flame was so tiny! And what’s more was that I was expecting the “torchbearers” to be a young and energetic athlete running to the finishing point in front of the clock tower. But what we got was an old man who was walking slowly. Oh come on! This is the torch relay of the YOG! Why wasn’t it lively athlete carrying the “torch”?

After the “torchbearers” walked passed, our history teacher gave us this question: what is the significance of the mini “torch” and whether it was worth the time. Then we waited for another one hour just to see two buses full of joyful athlete cheering and shouting exiting our school compound. We didn’t get to see the lion dance performance and other entertainment that was promised as they were at the front of the clock tower, while we were stationed near the gate, which was rather far from the tower.

To answer my history teacher’s question, no, i don’t think it was worth the time. I was not at all excited, or encourage, or feel what ever the whole process wanted me and my fellow friends to feel. I would rather spend the time studying than to wait for one hour, watch a extremely small flame in a huge lantern walk passed me in less than a minute and wait for another hour again before we were dismissed for our recess.

Requirements for progressing to Sec 3

Just knew this yesterday. MSG had to be at most 4.00, OP had to be C5 and above. I am fine with these requirements. But, IS B3 and above?! That's difficult! Why didn't the school inform us of these requirements until yesterday, which is like near the end of term 3 when we cant do much ACEs anymore! If we didn't meet these requirements, we had a high chance of getting into 3Q, the O-Levels classes.

When I hear this piece of information, I was stunned, or maybe everyone else too. B3, that is like at least 65! I only got 25 from my project work and had to clear 40 more! That's like almost impossible! Argh!!!

What A Day

Can you believe it? Six whole continuous periods of lesson ... FREE!!! Wait, actually it's seven, including recess. Chinese and English teachers, each having three periods today, both on MC! Wow! Never experience this kind of situation before.

However, I don't really enjoy it. There was nothing much to kill time with, other than two worksheets. No interesting games in my phone, didn't bring my laptop to do blogging or study for Math. Had to spend my time walking around the class and watching my friends play or writing their blogposts. It was kind of boring.

IT Home Learning T2W10 2010 task 2

Steps in Analysis

Point of View

• Point: Insider's point of view
  
• Evidence: Author been to Vietnam in 1967 - 68 and again in 1969
  
• Elaboration: He was in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, so would have seen how the war-torn country looked like.
  

Situation and Setting

• Point: Poem is situated during the Vietnam War
  
• Evidence: "Or will a war consume them", stanza 4, line 13; birth of the poem
  
• Elaboration: The phrase shows that the poem is during a war, and from the author saying that he wrote this poem in Saigon, Vietnam (refer to task 1), we can know that the "war" in this poem is the Vietnam War.
  

Language/Diction

• Point: A feeling of doom, fear, hopelessness
  
• Evidence: "darkness", "cannot flee", " are not free", "no light", "Down some endless thirsty hole"
• Elaboration: The use of these words invoke a sense of doom, fear and hopelessness. Darkness is usually associated with doom and fear, which is exactly how the children would feel during the war, which is a period of darkness.
  

IT Home Learning T2W10 2010 task 1

Children in the Darkness
by Henry M Bechtold

The author, Henry M Bechtold, was in his hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009 when he wrote this poem. His inspiration came from the news on TV. He was not paying attention to what the news reader was saying but instead, he noticed a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle in the background. The words of this poem suddenly came to him and he typed as fast as he could to get it all down.

Most children during the Vietnam War were usually seen holding toys, but Vietnamese children were seen holding a weapon, for example a gun, to defend themselves. They were constantly fleeing for their lives, thus, they did not had a chance to learn to read, write or dance, before death caught up with them.

http://warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html

Safety Starts With Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdS5zOLG4T4

hope you enjoy:)

Sooo Careless!

So careless of me...
I had forgotten to bring my keys to school today. In the end, I had to stay at my neighbour's apartment. I thought that I had to stay there for 2~3 hours, but our tenant happen to come home early. I must remember to bring my keys next time.

My Reading Habits

I love reading books. I usually read books for a few hours.
In the past, I used to read comics, for example "Doraemon" and "Garfield", and detective books like "The Three Investigator". I also like to read "Mr Midnight" and "Mr Mystery".
Now, I am reading "Readers' Digest" (of the 90s') and books that my Language Arts teacher, Ms Lim, recommend.