Doubtful Me

Projects day semi finals

2010-07-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

After a challenging ten minutes, the presentation is finally over. When I was standing there, my legs were like wobbly jelly and threaten to give way, but I luckily, it ended before I could fall onto the ground, lucky me. Yeah, the annual semi-finals is here again, and as expected, I am supposed to be one of the representative to help present the presentation. I was reluctant, but knew that there was no way out. I was the only one working so hard for the project and I knew the project best.

During the 7 minutes of presentation, my leg wobbled, jellied and threaten to put me to the floor. But still, I managed to overcome it, in fact, I had done so well that actually thought that I did better this time round. Yeah, the point is that we managed to answer all the questions given by the judges and we also managed to finish in time. This time round, I was lucky to have on the the judges as a vegetarian, this had boosted by confidence by a lot and made me more confident in answering the questions.

But finally, all is over. The semis is over and we just got to wait for the results. The results I will wait with bated breath. I hope we can go into the finals and get higher marks for IS. I also hope that we can be able to convince the judges that we have done a great job. Got to go now.

The break was over, too quickly

2010-07-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

It was youth day again, the day of the year when all youth rejoiced in happiness from the endless stress that the school had given to us. Every year, something special will happen, but most of the time, there will only be disappointment when one realized that they need to go back to school on holiday. But this year, something different happened, and I need not go to school, isn't that wonderful? But my happiness was short-life. The moment I wake up of bed, an issue started nagging behind my mind. Oh yes, and it was the meeting at the library.

The meeting was such a bucket of cold water. Before I could submerge into the pure bliss, there will be something to spoil the fun. Well, the good news is that the meeting has an unknown ending time, meaning that we might go off very early, but that is not the case, so, nothing good happened. But something really interesting do happen today, and that is Youth Day. Yeah, youth day is so interesting, on that day, I got to stay in the library from 11am to 5pm, I wonder how much time I wasted waiting for the internet to lag there. What a great way to waste 6 hours away.

How I wish some ADULT will realize what youth actually want. Many would say that they want a PSP, X-Box or some other electronic devices, but what I want is to have a day, where I can stone and sit down and do nothing and no one cares, but that is quite impossible. In Singapore's education, the student were never let to rest. They were to do something even though everything is done. The work load just add up a lot by a lot. Making a huge mountain of work. Yeah, you get the image. All work, no rest, makes me a good student...

The first week of school

2010-07-03T06:50:00.001-07:00

The first week had past and it had seem a long time already. Everyday was packed with homework and homework. The term is kicked off by a few assignment and a few testes, but we all know that is just the appetizer. The main menu has yet to come. If going to school is like mountain climbing, everyday was like climbing to the submit of Mt. Work with time hot on your heels. But, looks like the education system had some loopholes and here I am, using my precious time to type out my precious thoughts.

Well, life is almost normal, well, maybe not that normal. Projects Day is round the corner (and I am reaching that corner soon) and I am rushing to get all the things done. I wonder how much I can do a day, but the main point is, I am doing work. Yeah, not much of assignment yet, except the Chinese compo and the English essay. I wonder which questions to do...

Switching to working mode

2010-06-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

It is time again for the slave of the education system to stop counting dust and get to work. It would have been a very normal day for me if I had not break for holiday. I am suffering the aftermath of the holidays. It is just like jet lag, you just cannot get use to the things around you, you sleep when you are not suppose to be. Yeah, we rest when we are not suppose to be, and the consequences, a huge scolding from the teacher.

But school starts also means one thing. Exactly, it is the end of the world of boredom. We will sit on a couch sitting there, staring at the flickering screen, surfing the channels, hoping to find something worthwhile to watch while waiting for the World Cup to start. But now, our life will have a new perspective, a new point of view, an entirely new way of living. Instead of loitering around aimlessly, now, each stride of yours have a purpose, to put us forward, leaving the boring past far behind, stepping into a whole new world.

Now, we have a goal, an aim, something that affects us deeply inside. Although we might appear to be very uninterested and would rather be returning to the holiday mood. But a deep search in us would confirm the presence of a spark, a flicker of burning enthusiasm to do something, to accomplish something. Instead of being the grumpy young lad we want people to think we are, why not be the guy who is willing to accept new challenges, to conquer them and be the one you can be.

Positive mindset is the key!
Why hate and suffer? When you can love and enjoy...

School is starting, very, very soon...

2010-06-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

It is the last week of the holidays and it is Thursday already! Wow, time really flies, the end of school seems only yesterday, looks like I am running out of time to enjoy myself. Yeah, I got to enjoy myself before the school reopens, so, I went to the cinema today. (yay!

I watched the show Ip man, the legend it born. It is quite nice, with all the fighting scenes and everything. I was very excited when it comes to the part where Ip man was to fight a group of ninjas with super sharp knife using only a stick. That scene was certainly the best part of the whole show.

3 more days left, looks like I got to return to my schooling attitude. Aww.., holiday is over. I just wish it will last for another 1 week...

Holiday is almost over

2010-06-15T23:49:00.000-07:00

It was as if the holiday start only last week, but a glance at the calendar confirmed my worst fears that schoold is start in a little more than a week time. But what scare me the most is the fact that I have not done my projects yet and have only started on my powerpoint for the projects day presentation. I got so many reasons to be afraid.

I wonder what I should start first - the english book, the history eassy or my maths project? I wonder if I can have time to finish my Chinese book and complete all these homework, but it looks like there isn't much time left, so I think I rather do all halfway than leave all undone, but that gets me into trouble too, doesn't it, but at least I do not have to do so much work.

Maybe I should be doing my work, instead of sitting in front of the computer, typing out my blog. Yeah, so tune in to my next post.

Wow, what a great camp

2010-06-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Spending a few hours in school, stressed by the undoubtfully impossible standards of the test set by our dear video head, yeah, I survived.

But life was never the same again. Now, I know that a loudspeaker has almost the same name of the famous social website -- Twitter. And, it is called the tweeter. After looking at the possible screw-ups that is possible in the control room, I now have the control room phobia. What a great way to start my second semester in mediatech!

Luckily, not all hope was lost, we managed to get second in the photo marathon, what a miracle that we managed to emerge as the second. (wow) Our play was not bad, though we had a little change in the end, a change that made our play a popular hit. Yeah, defintely, the best part of the camp was the performances.

After the camp, we watched Karate Kid together. It was a wonderful movie, the 140 minutes inside the cinema was worth the money. I sometimes wonder, if we can sit so still in the cinema for a span of a 100+ minutes, how come we cannot stand the temptation of moving in a class that last only a short span of 30 minutes. Maybe, it is really that "my focus needs more focus".

Well, got to sleep...

My trip to the Universal Studios

2010-06-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

It is only last Thursday that I visited the newly-opened Universal Studios at the Sentosa. It was a great trip and I had many pleasant memories there. That collection of memories includes my first trip on a roller coaster ride. Surprising to say, that was my first time on a roller coaster.

The theme park was a place filled with exciting events and beautiful sceneries. Although the ticket cost quite a bomb, I daresay that the trip was worth the money. The park was split into a few smaller parts, of which I went twice each. The most memorable pace must have been the “Far far away” and the “Ancient Egypt”.
The trip to “Far far away was amazing! With its amazing 4d cinema, I got a chance to be sneezed by donkey and be totally spooked by a translucent floating object that is supposed to be a ghost. The other attraction there would be the junior roller coaster ride, one of the two working outdoor roller coaster there.

The ancient Egypt was my favourite part of the trip. Housing an indoor roller coaster, I certainly will not want to miss the fun. After fumbling through round and round, inside the building, I finally got to board the roller coaster. Being the most trilling ride I had ever had, it comprises of a part where the whole train just travelled backwards without any warning. Actually, I thought that it was more exciting to ride a roller coaster in the dark as you do not know where it will head next.

Other than the rides, the park actually hold shows to show the tourist how the tv world actually worked. There is sound stage where it actually becomes a scene of a powerful storm in New York. With the realistic thunder and lightning, the water rocked back and forth, it certainly will cause one’s heart to pop out. But that was nothing compared to the larger scale showcase of how the whole show actually goes. Filled with real actors and fully functioning vehicles. They managed to make everything so real! It is so amazing!

After the exciting and trilling rides, we went to the breath-taking New York to take some photos. The buildings were so real that I could imagine myself standing in some superman comics. The alleys, the shops and the café, there were so realistic. It was indeed a very well done job. The Universal Studio was the first theme park I went to and will hope to go there again. But next time, I will be tackling the gigantic roller coaster there -- the Battlestar Galactic.

Henry M. Bechtold -- Poet Analysis

2010-05-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Henry M. Bechtold is a application programmer with experience in mainframe assembler. Armed with the knowledge in serveral computer languages (Assembler, Cobol, Cics, Pli), he creates programs and systems that are simple, understandable and flexible to respond to changing needs. Henry also taught Assembler Language Programming for the Main Frame Computer as well as IBM OS JCL and IBM OS Utilities.

Henry loves Vietnam as if it was his mistress, filling him with exquisite joy. He travels around very often and takes a lot of meaningful pictures of common life that people do not usually see. His travel photos can be viewed on his website : Link.

http://www.henrybechtold.com/index.html

Poem Anylasis

2010-05-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

I have chosen "Children in darkness" as my choice of poem and my analyse is below the poem.

Children in darkness

There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

	Point	Evidence	Elaboration
1	Point of View	"Give them half a chance"	The poem is in the point of an educator. From the phrase "Give them half a chance", we can hear the concern the the poet had given to the future of the children. The poet wants the children to be educated on how to read and dance, showing that he is an educator, someone who wants to teach the children, one who wants to give them the chance that they deserve to learn.
2	Situation and Setting	"who someone will teach to fight	The tension is created throught the phrase "who someone will teach to fight". Children are looked upon as pure and innocent, bearing no grudges and hatred, but in this case, the children were taught "to fight", this is very different from our normal thinking. Instead of beings the innocent and beautiful souls that they are, the children's soul were polluted by the hatred of the adults, who used them to fight against their enemies.
3	Language / Diction	"endless thirsty hole"	The poet uses personification to describe war. He uses "thirsty" to describe war. This conveys his message that he thinks that war is drawing a lot of blood, taking a lot of lives, but it is not satisfied. Still, war is thirsty for more blood and lives. This phrase shows us how evil war is. The poem uses imagery to show us how long the war is going to last. He uses "endless hole" to describe war. This convey his message that war is never going to end, no matter how much lives is lost. It is just like an "endless hole" which will never be filled up, even with the mass numbers people that became the victim of the mass killing
4	Personal Response	"Children in darkness"	After reading this poem, I felt very sympathatic for the children. They are young and have a lot of future, they might be lawyers and doctors, but here they are, living just for survival itself, taken away the rights to learn. These are just some things that they suffer, along with all those physical suffering. Now, I understand how fortunate I am to be able to live in a country without war.

What does it takes to win?

2010-05-20T04:40:00.001-07:00

It has been the third day of the "amazing race" in Singapore. After visiting Little India, Kampong Glam and ChinaTown, our group managed to beat all odds and win the race, but really, what does it takes to win a race? Skill, teamwork or manpower? Which one is more important?

Firstly, what determine whethere you win or not is how bonded the team is, if the team cannot get together well, what is the point of having a group in the first place? Team competition allow the participants to learn how to work with other memebers of the team. This way, the participants can also learn to be more sociable when they step into the community.

Nextly, the skill is also very important. If the group does not know how to do things, what can they acheive? Nothing, nothing at all. Thus, it is also very important to have a certain skill to be able to complete the task given. Skill is also important as it will determine with group is better at the competition.

Lastly, I do not think that manpower is very essential for a group to actually success. Althought one is better than two, too many cooks spoils the broth. Althought a large group of people can easily think of fantastic ideas, it is very easy for the memebers to fight with each other because of the difference in opinion, thus, sometime, too much manpower can also lead to the group breaking up.

In conclusion, I think that teamwork is the most important point of winning as a team. With the skills needed, even if the members do not work together, it is impossible for the team to complete the task at hand. Work together, and win the game.

China Town -- the trip

2010-05-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

After the trip to Little India and Kampong Glam, it is time for us to learn more about our own culture - the traditional Chinese culture! In Singapore, the best place to learn about the Chinese culture is China Town. Rich in traditional shophouses, China Town also has a great number of modern sky scrapers.

The thing that interest me the most will be the Indian temple that lays in the middle of ChinaTown. It is a majestic temple that shows excellent craftsmanship. What got my attention was that it was the first Indian temple in Singapore, but instead of being in Little India, this temple was located in ChinaTown. Wow!

Of couse, there is the amazing race again. Yet agian, we managed to get the champion title, arriving at the ending point 45 minutes before the things actually ends! We had won all the rounds hands down, what an achievement! Yeah, we got some snacks for winning the game. Many of them said that the race was too easy, I thought so too...

The photographs can be viewed here.

Kampong Glam

2010-05-19T03:51:00.001-07:00

Trip to Kampong Glam -- 1
Originally uploaded by MettaOng

It was really a rewarding trip at Kampong Glam. Not only did I attempted the spicy Malay food, I also managed to visit the famous Sultan Mosque. I believe that visting the mosque is the most interesting event of this trip.

When I stepped into the mosque, I could not help but stare in awe at the excellent craftsmanship that the builders had. The things that they craft onto the walls and pillars where amazingly beautiful.

Also, I had a hand at the traditional games, such as the five stones and tops. When I first played the five stones, I expected it to be very easy. Unfortunately, it was not a skill that can be mastered easily.

Lastly, it is the royal cemetry. Most of the tombs are covered with yellow cloth and surrounded by some bricks. My guess is that the bodies lies inside the perimeter of the bricks. Althought it was a litlle spooky, I managed to went in and took some pictures.

Now, I am looking forward to my trip tommorrow.

Trip to Little India

2010-05-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

It is sabbaticals week again. I went to the sabbatical called "Adventure Singapore". This program is to let the participants know more about the other culture. Yesterday, we went to Little India for the amazing race. It was a fun trip for us. We went to the temple and learnt about the many different types of Indian gods. It was a really eye-opening experience for me as Indian culture is very different from the Chinese culture.

Also, I learnt to make a garland. Althought it was not very successful at first, but I managed to first one that looks OK. Also, I managed to get to try out some traditional Indian food. Yeah, it is not bad, in fact, it was quite nice. Fortuanately for me, I managed to see the traditional Indian fortune teller at work.There was a little bird that will help the fortune teller pick the customer's fortune.

The pictures can be found on http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongspxm/tags/triptolittleindia/

What is dating?

2010-05-11T04:13:00.001-07:00

After listening to an 'interesting talk" about dating, a question lingered in my eyes, what is the point of dating anyway, what advantages and disadvantages does dating has exaltly?

Firstly, we need to examine, what exactly is dating. According to Wikipedia, dating is a form of courtship, which may include any social activity undertaken by, typically, two persons with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability.

Courtship is a preparation for marriage, but nowadays people do not court for the sake of being married, instead, they court because they are loney and want some company. That purpose itself is not correct in the first place, thus, it is not right to go on a date if the purpose is not right.

Lets move on to the disadvantages. Firstly, dating is a very mature thing, if not done with the right purpose, it can cause other problems, such as underaged sex. Then, when they breakup, they will tend to be so streesed over the matter, cause some mental problem.

Next disadvantage about dating is that it wastes your money. To show off you the opposite sex, people will tend to treat them to lunch, and movies. This is a great waste of money. We do not know how to earn money, but there we are, wasting money on dates, see how wrong it is to go on a date when you do not know how to eran money.

Also, dating limits your social circle. When we are focused on a person only, we will then limit our social area around them only, thus, limiting the social circle. This way, they will not make any new friends, except for the one that he care for.

The only advantage of dating will be that both parties can understand each other better before marriage, so that they will not make the wrong choice of who to marry.

What went wrong?

2010-05-10T06:10:00.001-07:00

It had been a hard day for me during the maths test. for some reasons, I just could not concentrate on the paper. I panicked and lost track of time, rushing throught the last of the paper, hacking at the blank paper with the blunt tip of my pen. It was so nightmarish.

But finally, it was all over. But I knew that I was not going to do well. I was going to get a very low mark for sure, but, how low could it get? For days, I have been worrying about the results. Today, it came. To my dismay, I barely past. When I was recieving the paper back from the teacher, the teacher remarked, what happened to you?

I knew something was not right about me. I could not concentrate in exams, but could always think of the answer when I will just gathering wool. I knew I was prepared, armed with the knowledge needed. I guessed that I did not had the mental preparation for the test. But, how could I prepare myself for the exams? What a tough question for a stupid guy like me, just hope that I wil find the answer before the next exams.

No body will be unstatisfied if there is no longing or aim in the first place.

What exactly is elite education?

2010-05-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

Being stressed over some minor things， being calculative in everything. That is basically the lifestyle of an elite school student in Singapore. People say that stress makes people strive for excellence, but is it true or not.

In Singapore, students are ranked based on their education ability, but is that a boon or ban? In elite education, schools wants the students to be very independent. Thus, they award points to students if they did something extra, something not in the syllabus, but the problem arise, how do they give the marks, so that it seems fair?

Striving to be model student, they will have a very bad attitude towards their work. They will have a kind of thinking that work that does not worth any marks are not worth doing. This will cause them to become over calculative over their marks. This will lead to unhealthy competition. But the point is, does the marks really matters at all?

I believe that elite students are called “elite students” because of their attitude, not their academic results. The academic results is only a test of how smart one is, but what really matters when you enter the society is whether you can socialize and work with other people or not. Even when you are very good, if you do not know how to co-operate, one cannot succeed.

How exactly should elite education be?

~Metta Ong (ongspxm)

My trip to the park was not wasted

2010-05-05T04:01:00.001-07:00

Over-casted sky
Originally uploaded by MettaOng

It was an over casted day, so I decide to go to the park. (don't ask me why, I don't really know what I am thinking) Yeah, I went to the park. I saw this huge layer of cloud just over the blocks. It is so nice a picture that I started going "trigger-happy". Lucky for me, I did not wasted my efforts to pushing the shutter button. I got this very nice picture, I compared with some other picture on the National Geographic Photography thingy and found that this picture was actually not bad, just that the building looked extra.

Great minds thinks alike, looks like I am going to great one day.

My poem

2010-04-14T06:15:00.001-07:00

This is my poem about a girl.

With nothing purer that she is,
Her face glowed the pale white glow .
Her hands ever so smooth and silky,
Her crimson nails are just for show.

Her hair shone with the brilliance of Sun.
Her dreamy eyes the color of sky.
Her beauty incomparable to an angel,
Reminding me of summer in July.

Her temper can out beat the lightning,
Her hatred freezing the dew.
Her laughter rumble through the mountains,
She’s crying and no one has a clue.

Her beauty goes beyond her skin,
Her mind can slice a single hair.
I’m just a nobody,
With very little to compare.

She is rarer than rare, they commented,
But I doubt what they say.
If she’s all that and a bag of cookies,
Why say it with a cliché?

Yeah, that is all for now.

I watch "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs"

2010-03-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

After waiting for so long, I finally got to watch the movie "cloudy with a chance of meatballs". "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" is a meaningful movie which revolves around an inventor, Flint. The story takes place in Swallows Fall, which is famous for its sardine, until one day, sardines are labeled as the most yucky and gross food ever. From then on, Swallows Fall became a dark and gloomy place. Flint had always wanted to save Swallows Fall from its current dreary state. He invented a machine to change water into food, but the others are not convinced about his invention for he had invented a lot of things, but they had all failed. His invention include the"Flying Car", "Monkey Thought Translator" and the "Ratbird".

On the day of the reopening of Swallows Falls, Flint decided to test his new invention. He accidentally destroyed the whole town and sent his contraption rocketing up into the clouds. When he was about to give up, he met this weathergirl, Sam Sparks. Sam was very excited over his inventions. Halfway through their chat, cheese burgers suddenly came tumbling down towards the ground. Flint's machine worked.

The mayor of the town decided to use this food weather to promote Swallows Falls. He order Flint to make three meals a day, but everyone wanted more. Their orders had overworked the machine, cause it to mutate the food, making the food bigger. The gigantic food damaged the town badly. Everyone thought that Flint was a jinx, only his father and Sam, the weathergirl, stood by him. He was inspired and designed the "Flying Car 2". Together with the cameraman, Sam and Flint embark on a journey to stop the machine from producing any more food.

Fortunately, Sam and Flint managed to save the world from total destruction. They destroyed the machine and stop the food cyclone. Everyone managed to survived, except the greedy and selfish mayor. This is a short summary of the whole movie. One of the quote that is especially meaningful to me would be "When it rains, put on a coat". It means that if something happens, we must act immediately, and not act as if nothing had happened.

My favorite character is Flint's dad. He is one of those who thinks practically and does not give in to surrounding pressure. When the others are contented with the current situation, we will think further into the future and do the right thing. When everyone is enjoying the free food, he rather continue with his sardine business then join in and deepen the damage on the environment. He is wise and stay calm even though everybody is running amok.

The character that I liked least is the mayor. He is selfish and does not think about others. He only thinks about himself. His only motivation is to be the most successful mayor. He thinks that everyone is inferior to himself and all his actions are header towards his goal of being the most superior. When the food cyclone happened, he wanted to be the first to escape, but unfortunately for him, he did not survive the trip to reach distant lands. His boat sunk before he could even reach land.

I am looking forward to another movie, maybe 2012?

E-learning -- My poem

2010-02-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

My poem is on the dog shooting scene.

There was a dog in Maycomb,
and down the streets it roamed.
The name is Tim Johnson,
and its life almost done.

Calpurnia was called to the matter,
but Jem and Scout were told to scatter.
They said the dog was nosing around,
and Cal's smile turned into a frown.

She called for Atticus, yes she did.
Then she told everybody to scramble and hid.
Broom, broom now came a black ford,
with Heck and Atticus there on board

Now, everyone knows it's a mad dog.
So everyone had their gates locked.
Atticus suddenly pulled the trigger,
and the sound just got louder.

Tim was there, lying on the floor,
and from his wound, the blood pour.
Zeebo was then told to collect,
Tim's carcass, which was wrecked.

Jem and Scout, now they knew,
that Atticus too,
knew how to shoot,
and that, they salute.

This is my poem on the dog shooting incident.

Mrs. Dubose's obituary

2010-02-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

This is Mrs. Dubose's obituary, done with Powerpoint. The format is copied from the Straits Times.

E-learning -- My learning style

2010-02-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

I have never thought that I am musically talented. It says that I will enjoy music and recognise sound and the quality of tune, but I have also thought that being music smart is to be able to play an instrument, and I am not able to play any instrument at all.

I somehow expected the visual part to be one of the top component. I can read maps, find my way out of maze and is good at abstract art. Actually, I think that everyone is good at abstract art, just a drop of anything and that is a art piece. You could basically look at the baby's drool and say, "wow, what a creative art form this is."

Now, let us move on to my next post -- Mrs. Dubose's obituary.

Haiti's Baby Lift: Save the Children, Don't Just Take Them

2010-02-12T05:38:00.001-08:00

View Original Article

People are oblivious to the fact that adopting a child is a great responsibility. I believe that the people are doing these acts out of care and love, in the sense of goodness. But what people are oblivious to is the fact that we, as outsiders, are not supposed to take the child away from their parents. Unfortunately, the Haiti visitors are just the type of people that I have mentioned above. Parents of the kids in Haiti are begging the visitors to bring their children away, in hope that they will lead a better life. The visitors, wanting to be good Sanitarians, would swaddle the kids and bring them to the airport.

These acts will seem to be good acts that only kind people would do. But in time of technology and evidence, the time where people all over the world is trying to maintain their rights, people taking the kids away are commonly known as kidnappers. They can be charged for kidnapping and abduction. But, in my point of view taking others children away is a far worse crime than all that. It is just like killing the connection between the parents and the kid. To me, that is the biggest sin ever. Parents have bought the children to this world, they have a special connection with their children. That connection let both the child and parent feel each other.

If you are to give over your child to someone, would you give it willingly. If you had gone through it, you would never want to give the child away. No one in the right mind would do that willingly. Instead of taking the child away, I think that we should actually help the mother find a job, allowing her to feed her kids. This way, the mother could stay at the side of her child and the good Sanitarians would not be accused of kidnapping children. Although it is seem normal for a jobless mother to "give" her child away, in her heart it is very grievous. So, instead of taking the children away from their mothers, please try to save them.

Evaluation Sheet for a Prominent Blogger

2010-02-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

Blog Analysis: http://taxidiary.blogspot.com

Date Analysis: 6 Feb 2010

Content

The contents are very personal. It creates a type of closeness between the writer and the reader.

Plus

The readers are more willing to read the posts that the writer wrote, because the posts are very personal and it feels as if the writer is personally telling the story to them.

Minus

People that teachers that takes information from blogs will be unwilling to take from his blog, because the posts are too personal.

Interesting

Few professional bloggers write that way and the way the writer convey his points is very controversial.

Layout
The layout is simple.

Plus

Some readers with slow browsers can load the blog with little, unlike some blogs with a lot of useless things, like music player, etc.

Minus

Some readers would be unimpressed with the layout and think that the posts would be as dull as the layout, thus, less people will read the blog.

Interesting

Most professional bloggers have very complicated layout, many that started blogging would already prefer very fancy layout and design. This plain layout makes the blog different from others.

Followers
There isn't a follower function in his blog.

The followers usually post comment the post until two or three days after the post.
They post comments on whether they agree with the author's view or not.

No, the blogger does not respond to the comments posted.

U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google -- right or wrong

2010-01-27T06:51:00.001-08:00

The report is on : CNN.

Google had announced that the Chinese had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail. It was known that the U.S. government had aided the Chinese hackers. Many of the email and telecommunications services are being wired. Police all over the world are able to look into your email, and your conversations with your friends. This, of course, is for security reasons, but is this right or wrong?

Many government agents all agree that this is important, but what happen if the minister is the one who is being bugged. I supposed he would disagree to being wired. What happens, what happens. To me, I think that this king of actions are not right. Why do the government need to track others email when could use the law to control their citizens. If the government are trying to use underhand methods to track the bad-doers, it just shows that they are not efficient enough to control over their country openly.

I understand that being open and using conventional ways to rule a country is not enough. There must be some kind of safety net to catch those who crossed the line. The people who crossed this line can cause security treat scam and war. What problems in the internet now is that it is too open. People can write anything they want on the net, and this can cause tension between people. So, there must be a switch that will search all this items out, and that's why Google created a back door in Gmail.

Now, the Chinese hackers had tried to penetrate Gmail, under the command of the government. I do think that the government is a bit too much to hack into Gmail, even after Google had created a back door for them. I believe that the government should at least talk to Google about the plan before doing such actions. These actions not only abused the privacy of Gmail users, it also tarnish the government's good name. As a bystander, I think that it is very important the government be more careful with their decisions and actions.

With great power, comes great responsibility. There is always a stress on those leaders. I wish that they could be make more positive ideas, instead of negatives ones, such as hacking into email servers. Google, well-done.

Reasons for blogging

2010-01-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

Why is there a need to blog? Some say it is to promote an idea, while some simply say that blogging help them get to girls.

Well, I believe I blog for the sake of exchanging ideas so I can improve. I am just an average guy in an average school, doing what everybody else is doing, so what makes this blog so special that you must read it. Firstly, I must repeat that I am just an average guy in an average school, doing what everybody else is doing. I learn, that is one fact for you. So, I hope you can give me some suggestions to improve my blog, some way or the other.

Class Blog Policy

I will write deliberately.
I will acknowledge mistakes promptly.
I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly.
I will strive for high quality with every post – including basic spellchecking.
I will stay on topic.
I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
I will link to online references and original source materials directly.