Last post(Maybe)

Since I haven't  been posting any entries since after the mid-term holidays, I feel obliged to post my last mandatory blog entry excluding the literature essay I have yet to type. Hmmmm..........what to talk about? I recently acquired a new student, been teaching her for a month now. I have to stop teaching for now until after SPM though so that I have time to study. Not before two of them went for their theory exam last Saturday at SMK Taman Sea. Aaaaaahhhhh....I was so scared for them! Now I know how all teachers feel. Eventhough I wasn't the one taking the exam, I felt frightened for them. Anyway, I have also been learning how to play the saxophone for the past month or so. I'm not taking any formal lessons. Just learning from my dad when I go and visit him. Besides that, nothing else exiting happened this past two months. Especially now that trials are coming up, all I'm suppose to be doing now is study. Ok, I will use this opportunity to wish everyone in 5 Belian good luck for your trials and SPM and may life after form 5 be exiting and also may it bring plenty of opportunities to meet new people and to live a wonderful life.:)

Discrimination lives within everyone

Discrimination is only one of the many social problems that is affecting our society today. What is discrimination? Discrimination is the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person or a thing based on the group, class or category in which that person or thing is perceived to belong rather than on individual merit. Sadly, this act of prejudice has been instilled in us since we were young. Before we even start our schooling years, we would have been told by our parents who to be friends with and who to avoid based on superficial reasons such as race, religion, appearances and so on.

Discriminatory behaviours take on many forms, but all involves a certain amount and form of rejection and exclusion. One of the many forms of discrimination is racial discrimination. Racial discrimination differentiates individuals on the basis of real and perceived racial differences. This form of discrimination has repeatedly and continuously tainted the history of men. As early as 1866, the Civil Rights Act in the United States provided a remedy for intentional race discrimination in employment by private employers and state and local public employers. Even in our own country which houses many races, where unity between the different races is essential for the country’s and its’ citizen’s well being, act of prejudice against others based on race can be felt and seen in our society today. In schools, the students usually sit together and mix with other students of their own race. Most of them do not bother to mix with other races and learn about their culture and their ways.

Another popular form of discrimination is gender discrimination. This form of discrimination is most commonly seen in workplaces. An example of this is the glass ceiling in the United States. This is where women are often held down in the work place never advancing past a certain point. Gender discrimination is also common in our country despite the National Women’s Policy. It has become the mindset of the employers to as an expense because they take days off for children and need time off for maternity leave. Women are also stereotyped as more emotional in contrast with men, which therefore leads to irrational thinking. Besides that, they claim women do not possess the physical strength and the logical thinking to perform certain jobs which are perceived as male profession. Most women are being held down in male dominated professions, men often rise quickly to positions of authority in fields and are pushed forward into management positions, even surpassing women who have been at the job longer and with more experience in the field. In a nutshell, males are perceived to be more superior than women.

To conclude, whether we admit it or not, discrimination lives within everyone. There are many forms of discrimination other than the two stated above. This act of prejudice and stereotyping people of a certain perceived group has spread like a disease around the world. These people are constantly expected to conform to the norms of society. If they can do so, why can’t we do the same? Accept their differences, learn from them and accept everyone as equals. There is no individual superior to another. Everyone of us is unique in our own way. We must learn to embrace that fact quickly in hope that discrimination will be forever exiled from our society.

Entry for 11/6/12 to 24/6/12

       Well, holidays are over. School's started and I got all my marks back. I'm not proud to say that I didn't do well. I could have done much better. I got only 5As, 5Bs and a C.*sigh*Well, I shouldn't be surprised since I only started studying history two weeks before the exam and a day or two before for the other subjects. Hopefully I will do better for my trials. Other than that, everything else is pretty ok. For English, I was assigned a book entitled 'Rebecca' to read. Just last Tuesday, my whole class got to watch 'Freedom Writers' in the bilik tayangan. It was a very interesting movie as it touches on discrimination and other social problems in our modern society today.

       This Sunday morning I was suppose to go for the E-thon in my school to help out the Science and Maths Society with the face painting stall. The Form 3s planned to set up a face painting stall and a haunted house but in the end it didn't work out for reasons I don't want to know. So, I spent my day with my parents and grandparents in 1Utama. I had the opportunity to watch part of the Charms Cheerleading Championship. There were quite a number of teams there such as the Stompers, Vulcans, Angel, Cyrens and our very own Mickeymitez. Not sure whether the Dynamitez were there. Couldn't stay and watch for very long. Ok, I better sleep soon, after I finish watching an episode of Charmed. I bought Season 1 just last Saturday and I am hooked! I love this show so much!

Entry for 4/6/12 to 9/6/12

This week was pretty much the same as last week. I did my friendship bracelets, the beaded animals, read my new storybooks, my chores around the shop and teach. On Thursday though, I went to Susan's shop at the Curve to give my birds and do more birds. I bought two more storybooks at Borders. My parents decided to go up to Penang so yesterday, my parents and I left the house at 7.00a.m. and reached Penang around noon. My parents are staying at Tanjung Bungah Hotel and I am staying at my cousin's place. Usually, I would have  no time to do my homework when I am at my cousin's place as she'll keep me busy with her endless talking about school, her stories, animation she has created using a programme called 'Scratch' and stuff she finds online. She is such a talkative person, in a good way. She is also so full of energy. Today, she has to go to school to finish up her robotics project with her friends for a competition so her I am, updating my blog with her puppy, Nutmeg, giving my feet a tongue bath. I'll be leaving Penang tomorrow as it's the last day of holiday.*sigh*I am not really looking forward to my exam results. The second week of exams was really a very bad week for me. That is it for now I guess.

Entry for 28/5/12 to 3/6/12

It's the holidays! Finally, after three horrible weeks of exams. I still have to wake up early though and follow my mum to the shop. There I have to help clean in addition to all my other chores and teaching students as we are clearing up the storeroom. It was not fun at all. On Thursday, my friends came over to do the beaded animals. I learned how to make a bird that day. It was really fun but tedious. All of them loved Tubby(my dog) especially Susan. When we were having our lunch, he kept looking at them with his big eyes, begging them to feed him. He is such a greedy dog. On Saturday, I went to 1 Utama with my dad to watch Men In Black 3. Oh, I also bought two new story books right after exam. Well, that's it for now. Sorry for the randomness, nothing much to talk about this holiday.

Letter to the editor

Dear editor,

      As a proud citizen of Malaysia, I have unfortunately come across many Malaysians who blatantly do not care for their country and this is obviously seen through their behaviour and inconsiderate acts in public.

      Firstly, many Malaysian smokers do not have the decency to smoke in an enclosed area or at least away from people. I'm sure many restaurants provide a section in the premise for smokers so as to not bring discomfort to non-smokers. Not only does the smoke and chemicals in the cigarette affect the smoker but it affects the people around the smoker as well, thus the term passive smoker. Besides that, I'm sure many of you agree that the smell of a lighted cigarette is horrible. Just the other day, I was walking in a shopping complex with my parents when we walked by a smoker and that idiot just blew the smoke at my face! Well..not directly at my face since I am vertically challenged. The smoke was above my head and I could still smell it. Before I could say anything to that person, he sprinted off in the other direction and threw the cigarette butt on the floor.

      In addition to that, Malaysians like to litter. They throw their rubbish everywhere, on the floor, in the drain except the dustbin. I often see a large pile or a mountain of rubbish bags in the alleyway containing all sorts of trash from plastic bottles to tin cans. Most of the time, the garbage is not disposed off properly therefore making the whole area smell and the air becomes difficult to breathe. Not only that, people like to throw their used tissues or candy wrappers by the roadside or in the middle of the road. Sometimes, I see roads, especially roads near coffee shops and restaurants, strewn with rubbish. It is such a gruesome sight.

     Last but not least, Malaysians have many bad habits when it comes to queuing up at counters. Just three days ago, I was at McDonald's with my friend to buy our lunch. After ordering, we waited at the side for our food. The lady after us was not that considerate. She just stood there after ordering her food, hogging up the queue, waiting for her food until the cashier had to tell her to wait at the side. Since there many people that day, a lot of us had to wait at the side at the same time. There wasn't much space but the lady waited beside us instead of behind us and kept grabbing her french fries when it was placed on her tray. Her bag kept bumping into me and my friend and I were literally pinned to the wall until our food came.

    It is people like this that causes foreigners to look down upon us. Day by day, our country is becoming such a discomfort to live in. Malaysia is such a beautiful country filled with multitudes of culture. Nowadays, is so hard to believe that Malaysia has an interesting and beautiful culture because of the behaviour and inconsiderate acts of most Malaysians. I hope that these people will change their ways so all of us can live in harmony and in peace.

Sincerly,
Frustrated and angered citizen.

Dinner at Rakuzen

Yesterday, I went to eat Japanese food at Rakuzen! My mum and I went with one of the school's students and their mum. Normally, my mum would not have the oppurtinity to go out with her friends as she only finishes work at 6.45 and by that time she is way too tired to do anyting else. But so happen yesterday she finished at 6.00 and she had a few cancellations in between. It was a nice change for me too as I don't have to be at the school for almost 10 hours listening to the students' horrible playing(not all, just some), the elephants(there is a ballet school upstairs. I can't comprehend how one so small can make so much noise with each step) dancing upstairs and the construction of a new church just across the street. Anyway, this particularly Rakuzen outlet was located at Hartamas Shopping Centre. We made reservations earlier as this restaurant is usually packed at lunch and dinner time. Despite that, we had to wait for 15 minutes before our table was ready. I have never heard of let alone been to Rakuzen before so I was a bit sceptical of the food served there but turns out they have a huge variety of Japanese food from tempura to soba and the food is sooooo good! We each ordered our own set and picked at each others' food. I ordered a grilled fish set. Two hours later, we were all stuffed from the delicious food. I would highly recommend going to this restaurant to eat. Eventhough it is a bit pricy, it is really worth it.

Entry for 16/4/12 to 22/4/12

Late entry again. Ha ha! Sorry Pn. Monica.:( Last week or rather last weekend was exceptionally busy for me. First of all, I went to FRIM last Saturday. This trip was organized by the school's Science and Maths society. To tell you the truth, that trip to FRIM was my first school trip and it was so much FUN...and tiring. We hiked for about 3 hours in the forest. Thankfully, we had a guide, Dino, to show us around FRIM. He told us amazing facts about FRIM and pointed out some of the plants there such as the Liana tree, 'Tembaga Suasa' or Crinum asiaticum, 'Jelutong' or Dyera costulata and Ficus or Ara tree. We also saw the giant fish or arapaima and apparently it comes when it hears clapping. While Dino was showing us all of this, I was busy taking pictures and writing(well, typing actually) notes as instructed by Pn. Lim, our teacher advisor because this trip is suppose to be educational and we have to hand in a report about it in two weeks time. The most exciting part of this trip was the canopy walk. I have this little fear of canopy walk because a long time ago, I went to Bukit Bendera with my cousins and when we were on the canopy walk, they jumped on it making it sway. Despite that, I went on it so I would spoil the trip for everyone. The person in charge told us to walk in groups of five. Our group was the last to go but I was the first one in the group to get on the canopy walk. At first it wasn't so bad, but when I reached the second part of it, the wind blew and it started to sway! I quickly walked to the next platform. Miraculously, I manage to brave through it all. We reached school about 1.50. I got off the bus and walked to the nearby park with my friends to do our project. We finished around 3.45 and I went back to the music school as I had choir practice. My legs started to hurt after that due to our long hike in FRIM. Ok, I finished talking about Saturday. Now, about yesterday. My legs were still hurting but it was not as bad as the day before. My mum and I got to the music school around 2.00 to make sandwiches before our last choir practice for our performance in Sunway Pyramid. We made sandwiches because there were small kids singing with us and we figured that they were going to get hungry sooner or later. Anyway, we had our practice then left for Sunway Pyramid around 6.30. My stepdad had to bring our electric piano there because the people organizing the event could not provide a piano.O.o We performed at 8. It was so nice and entertaining to see and hear the small kids sing. Their voices are so small and cute! Their parents took a lot of pictures and videos as this is the first time their kids performed with us. We had better microphones than the last performance so the audience could hear us sing. According to some, the sound was much better this time. I don't know, I couldn't really hear myself sing on stage. There were no speakers facing us. After the performance, we went to Aunty Anne's to eat pretzels! That's all for now.

Entry for 26/3/12 to 15/4/12

I haven't been posting my entries for two weeks now because of several reasons. Firstly, a week after the drain incident, I had wind in my stomach for a whole day and could not go to school on thursday. I was a bit worried that my class teacher might not accept my letter on a friday but she did so my name was not called during assembly on monday(*phew*). Then, just last week, I caught a cold right after school on tuesday. I skipped school the next day. I went to school on thursday thinking that I was well enough but I had to go home early as I was still coughing really badly that I could not breathe properly for a while. I think is because I was in the hall during the first period and it was quite stuffy in there. Anyway, one thing happened after another so that is why I was unable to post an entry for the past two weeks. In addition to not feeling well, I am also very stressed up due to our funds for our pages in Nostalgia. I am in charge of making friendship bracelets and I am also helping Susan with her beaded animals. The order forms for the bracelets were only distributed yesterday, about 2 weeks after I got the strings. So, I can't start making the bracelets because eventhough I have the strings, I do not have any orders yet and according to Yi Lin and Mun Yan, I do not have all of the colours to make the frinedship bracelets. Mun Yan went to buy the rest of the strings today. Hopefully, I will get all the colours by tomorrow. I am getting really worried whether or not I have enough time to finish making all of the friendship bracelets. Well, the good thing about this month is I get to look forward to my Science and Mathematics club's FRIM trip next Saturday followed by Perfect Pitch Choir's performance that very same night in Sunway Pyramid. I hope I  will be well enough then to attend the FRIM trip as well as sing for the choir. Wish me luck! It is going to be quite an eventful month!

Unlucky day:(

I am posting my entry early this week because I have to talk about the unlucky things that happened to me yesterday or I would just scream. Anyway, I accidently fell in the drain after St. Johns yesterday. Someone shifted the drain cover to the side and the drain was exposed. As usual, I was not aware of my surroundings so I did not realise the drain cover was not there and my whole left leg went into it. I was shocked to find myself suddenly on the ground and my foot twisted and stuck. Luckily, my friend, Yvonne, was there and she helped me up. At first, I could not get my foot out so I had to take my foot out from my shoe and later wrench the shoe out from the drain. The whole time I did not feel any pain except numbness where my leg made impact with the drain. But, as I slowly walked to the gate, pain started to spread through my leg. I told my stepdad about the incident. When I got back to my mum's music school, the part of my leg which hit the drain was swollen. It was so swollen it almost looked like another knee. My mum had to rub counterpain onto the swollen area for me. Towards her last lesson, she put cold and hot cloths onto the swollen area. She alternate between the hot and cold cloths repeatedly. As if that wasn't enough, I went home to find my house and other houses within the area had a power outage so I had to walk around with only small candles to illuminate the house. The power only came back after midnight. The only good that came out of this was I did not need to do my fitness test today. The swelling has gone down but my leg still hurts and my foot hurts too when I lift it up so I can't run.

Entry for 12/3/12 to 18/3/12

Wow, it's sunday already. Time flies so fast. Holidays are coming to an end.:( *sigh* This holiday was not so bad. I went to watch lorax with Jia Yih, Susan, Pei Qian and Hannah at cineleisure on wednesday. We wanted to watch seefood at first but we decided with lorax in the end. I found the movie quite entertaining, cute and random. Random as in the trees look like a big ball of fur stuck on a trunk and the people in the movie randomly get up and start singing. Putting the randomness aside, the movie actually carries a message about the plight of the environment, how us humans being greedy can affect the environment greatly. And not in a good way. After the movie, we walked around curve and ikano power center for a while. I also got to see Susan's and her sister's GUINEA PIG! Their names are Oscar and Oreo. They are sooooo cute! We petted them then Pei Qian played with Susan's dad's cute and colourful frog. I'm not much of a frog person so I just watch her play with it. Well, I better go to sleep now seeing as tomorrow is the first day of school. AAAAHHHH!!!! EXAM RESULTS TOMORROW!!!!*sigh* Well, that's it for now. Till the next entry:)

Freeeeedom!

Exams are over! Yaaaaaay!:) Finally, I thought it would never end. Eventhough it was just a monthly test, everybody took it really seriously. I think I might flunk my physics.:( Well, it's all over. Don't need to worry about anything now except what to do during the holidays beside my essay and project. Hmmmmm........ maybe I should go through my music theory since I have forgotten almost everything that I have learned(my last exam was six years ago and I haven't done theory since). Don't want to teach my student the wrong thing. I should probably practice my violin more as well. I haven't been practising for a month now and i think my teacher is slightly frustrated that I can't play my song perfectly especially the parts where I have to shift position eventhough she doesn't show it. I have been playing violin for a year and i still suck.......yup I definitely have to practice more. Well, that's all I have to say.

WE WON!

For this week, I have nothing much to say except we won the drama competition! Yaaay! That was the only exciting thing that happen this week unfortunately. Exams start tomorrow. *sigh* So here I am studying last minute AGAIN when I should have started 2 weeks ago which was when I originally planned to study but due to my laziness and procrastination, I only started last wednesday. I have only studied biology, history and a bit of add maths so far. I don't know how I'm going to pull through this exam. Well, I better get back to studying. Till next time!

Drama

Finally, another busy week has passed and here I am sitting in front of my dad's computer typing in this week's entry instead of using my iPod touch which means I don't have to squint while typing my entry. So many things happened this week like the go green hunt and merentas desa but the most exciting thing was our drama competition. At first I thought I didn't need to do anything as Yi Lin said there were enough people helping to make the props. But then a few weeks before the drama competition, she informed Susan and I that we are going to be part of the play. Basically, we had to carry the props to and off the center of the stage. Our props consist of  a cardboard cross, "buildings","machines", trees, flowers, a bush, baju kurung skirts as the river, a cardboard tv and plants. I had to pester my mum for plants. I'm not much of a plant person but in the end I ended up like my mum. For the whole week before the competition, I just took care of my plants and I almost neglected my homework. Luckily, none of them died except for one but I manage to replace it before Thursday. Ok, I'm typing too much about my plants. Anyway, back on topic, I'm not the sort of person who is active in school but I'm glad that I had a chance to play a part in our class drama. I was so scared that I will forget which prop to put on stage before which scene on that day. In the end, I'd only forgot one part. I had to take back the plants before the scene where Bridget breaks the news to Vladimir but Susan had to take it back for me since I forgot(I'm sorry Susan!) I had a lot of fun working together with the actors especially the people who were involved in props and they are Yi Lin, Susan, Jia Hui, Hui Qing, Chai Lee, Vin Sze, Edalene, and Huey Xia. I really admire Carmen's leadership skills and her ability to bring all of us together to make this play a success. I also admire Yi Lin's art skills and the time she spent on the props. Lastly, I admire the actors who worked hard memorising their lines and my other classmates who were the audience supporting and cheering the actors on. I hope that we will win the competition because all of us really gave a hundred percent to make this play a success.

Entry for 13/2/12 to 19/2/12

*sigh* This week has been a very busy and tiring week for me. On Monday after school during Science and Maths, the green hunt AJks had a meeting to discuss the green hunt. This green hunt is organized by a group of form 3 guys and Chee Yee, our president. We were assigned to our stations and were told what to do. My friend, Jia Yih and I were assigned to station 2, Susan and Keng Gek were assigned to station 1, Chee Yee and Min Qi were assigned to station 4 and Hui Qing and Li Wei were assigned to station 5. After we were assigned to our stations, I was immediately informed that I have to prepare a report regarding the green hunt together with Chee Yee. I think she secretly suggested to the guys that I would be perfect for the job(I don't think this is true). Hopefully, she won't spontaneously strangle me during lessons or vice versa. Our class had drama practice on Thursday and Friday. I am suppose to help with the props which basically means that I have to carry them to and from the stage. I also brought my plants on both days as they were needed for the play. Hopefully, my plants will last until Monday for the final drama practice. I think I will need to get new plants for the actual day. On Thursday night, my mom asked me to teach her student on Saturday until she can fit her into her schedule. So now, I have 1 official student and 1 unofficial student. On Friday, I had my violin lesson and my teacher gave me a hard piece to practice. All I can say is that I hope to play half the song before my next lesson with her. Just this morning, I had my first lesson with my new student. She was so quiet that I have to tell her that I would not eat her before she relaxed a little. Ha ha! They can be so cute sometimes. Well, that is all I have to say for now.

Entry 6/2/12 to 12/2/12

This week was generally ok for me. Monday and Tuesday were school holidays so it gave me some time to catch up with my homework, study(i couldn't believe I did that) and practice my violin. Tuesday was a little stressful though. My student did not really want to listen to me that day. She just came back from Melaka and she was probably still in her holiday mood. She played for a short while then she didn't want to play anymore. She clenched her fist and started singing incoherent words. After a while I gave up and let her go. I then ask her mother for the fees. Ha ha! *sigh* hopefully tomorrow she will be more calm. Yesterday, I visited my dad and grandparents. I ended up following them to a church near Eastin Hotel for a healing session. My dad was asked to go to this healing session by a friend. I tagged along because nobody else will be at home. It was a very different atmosphere for me as I usually go to temple. Everyone there was friendly and they warmly welcomed me there. The session lasted for quite a while but luckily I got back before my visitation hours were up.

Entry for 30/1/12 to 5/2/12

Wednesday day was a really stressful day for me. Not only did I have a lot of homework, I also had a lot to do in my mom's music school. I just came back from school at 4.15 and started my homework around 5. Things were ok until 8. The water tank at the reception area leaked twice and I had to clean it. After that, someone spilled some powder all over the counter and the floor and didn't say anything about it. I only found out about it when a parent who was waiting in the school told me that she felt something on the floor. Again, I have to go and clean it up. It's not like I don't like helping my mom with things regarding the school. I know I have to because she is so busy all the time. Is just that incidents like this only happens when I have so many things to do. Luckily, things were better after that day. Yesterday, my student came for her group class. She does group class under my mom and individual class under me. She told everyone that she has acquired two new tortoises. They were named "ToTo" and "TisTis" because in her mind, these two words combine will become tortoise. She is 5 years old so it is still considered very cute. I never thought I would enjoy teaching her this much. As a child, my mum will tell me many funny and amusing stories about her students. Now, I get to share mine.

January's Entry

I went to Penang on the second day of Chinese new year. My parents and I left the house around 5.30 in the morning. It normally takes us about 4 hours to reach Penang but we made a few stops here and there so it took us about 5 hours. Once we got there, we went to Pulau Tikus to book a room at Berjaya Hotel. I stayed at my cousin's place though because I rarely see her and I wanted to spend some time with her. She is quite and interesting and unique person. She is 10 this year but is studying in Standard 5. She likes art, like me and has interest in unusual things, unlike me. I still find her cute though. Every time I come up to see her, she will have lots to tell me, stories about her friends, her robotic competition, her imaginary world and her newly acquired poodle. She talks at supersonic speed so most of the time I can't understand her but luckily, she is satisfied as long as someone listens to her many stories. It was fun spending time with her and my aunt. We left Penang that Thursday afternoon. I wish her and my aunt goodbye and she responded by sulking a little. It reminded of when she was a baby, she will always cry when I leave penang. Ha ha! Some things never change.

Article

Bloodshed at Greenland Coast 

                        by Rachel Anne 

              

               It was cold and dark at the coast of Greenland. The British aircraft-carrier, Triton was on the ice-filled waters of Baffin Bay, staying close to shore. The "Triton" was sent here by the government to collect a super secret government project. On an ice-cliff lay a large and modern snow-tractor filled with at least 10 people inside. After a few minutes, a man named Joss contacted the "Triton" to inform the marines that there was a group of 10 to 12 men coming onto the shore from a fishing boat. Most of the men were carrying guns and they were moving towards the shore. The marines were asked to sent a few of their men to shore fast to get a hold of them. As the marines made their way to shore, another tractor arrived at the other side of the glacier. After a few moments, a fight between four men from both tractors. Blood was spilled that day, staining the ice red. In the end, the killers who were responsible for the plane crash were killed.