My Memories
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at
My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something
At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem
It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays
I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts
The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another
Seven to the power of five is unreasonable
On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo
The capital of Singapore is Singapore
My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper
In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me
Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment
When my eyes were actually closedEach stanza in this poem talks about different situations and happenings in school. The stanzas were arranged in Single lined stanzas, couplets, triplets and quatrain. The poem appears to be written without a regular rhyme, rhythm or form. The poem sounds natural and resembled everyday conversation. There were two uses of alliteration in the entire poem in stanza 2 & 3. The uses of imagery in this poem were humorous. Imagery was used in stanza 5, 7 and 10-12. The poems speaks about life as a student and was brought about humorously. The single lined stanzas looked like pure randomness. His poem is fun and interesting.
1st Stanza
It was the only stanza written with the subtle rhythm and the only rhythm found in the entire poem. The use of the last sentence appeared very similar to students in our modern times where we do not really care about anything in school. We just go with the flow of each passing day.
2nd Stanza
The author writes about the interruption during the singing of the national anthem and it seems like it was part of everyday life. In our dailt lives, there are always 1 or 2 jokers who would be talking or fidgeting around till the singing of the national anthem. The black crows seems to be symbolise these people.
3rd Stanza
The author appears to enjoy Wednesday despite getting his shoes dirty. It was the only day he mentioned out of the seven days a week. The author must have had some type of fun every Wednesday so he does not mind getting his shoes dirty.
4th Stanza
Two words caught my attention in this stanza, 'must admit'. This brings about a feeling of him not liking the scouts at 1st. However, he later admits the good points of the scouts. There are hints of him being unwilling to think that scouts actually have good points.
5th Stanza
The author seems to want a chauffeur to ferry him to and from school as well. Of all the things he notices in school and writes, the chauffeurs was one of the items he wrote. This shows a want in him. This stanza also includes imagery. It allows us to imagine the people chatting and sitting at the kerb, awaiting the dismissal of the people they needed to fetch.
6th Stanza
This one lined stanza expresses his resentment and dislike for mathematics. He does not seem to understand simple things such as seven to the power of five.
7th Stanza
This stanza uses imagery as well. It brings humour when one imagines a person singing malay songs and wearing a malay costume during Chinese new Year. This incident left a deep impression on the author. This can be seen from him choosing to write about this instead of the traditions of Chinese New Year like redpackets and the traditions the Chinese have during the new year.
8th Stanza
This is simply free verse. I don't think anything can be analysed from this x.x
9th Stanza
This shows a typical student who did not study and tries to pass with simply writing the same answer as some of them are bound to be the correct answer. This situation happens often enough during exams. When one does not know what the answer should be, one tends to randomly put down an answer as that gives a chance of getting the question correct. One tends to try one's luck and hope they get it correct.
10th-12th Stanza
The final few stanzas talk about his final item in his school life - the photo taking for the annual yearbook. This represented the end of the school year for him. His picture was taken with his eyes closed and that the humorous twist and end of the poem.
5:03 PM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Edgar Allan Poe, a man who had a sad past and yet a wonderful writer. His entire life was faced with many deaths, starting at a young age. His parents died when he was young and was taken in by others to raise. He was the 1st welll known american writer to earn a living through writing alone and he ended up having a financially difficult life and career. His works represent an escape from the real, unromantic life where miseries become beautiful things.
Idealism was embraced by American romantic writers. They were optimists. They believed firmly in man's good nature. Edgar Allan Poe produced many literary writes on romanticism through poems and short stories. He tends to escape from reality. One of his ways was to write. In his poem 'A Dream Within A Dream' he gives the effect that life is a dream; unrealistic, hopeless and illogical. He brings upon the difference where we can wake up from our dreams but not our lives. An example of such a verse would be 'Oh! That my young life were a lasting dream! My spirit not awakening, till the beam; Of an eternity should bring th morrow; Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow; 'T were better than the cold reality; Of waking life to him whose heart must be; And hath been still, upon the lovely Earth; A chaos of deep passion from his birth.' In poems such as 'To My Mother' and 'Annabel Lee', he writes about the women he loved and adored. In his poem, Annabel Lee's parallel in real life was Annie Richmond, who was a married woman who Edgar Allan Poe fell in love with. His poems shows the idealism of her and their forbidden love. The verse 'I was a child and she was a child, in this kingdom by the sea. But we lloved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee. With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me.' Another theme he brings out through his works was death. Death appeared to be the best escape from this miserable world. Edgar Allan Poe ever attempted sucide after the death of his wife. He didn't die and continued writing to die at the age at 40. The reason of his death is unknown. His themes of dream, love and death uses much emotion, imagination and idealization to achieve a romantic effect.
His poems and works brings out many emotions regardless of the theme he is trying to bring out. The use of language in his works are able to bring out the desired effect. His works had a great effect upon American litreature. No other poet has lives through the oddities in the life of Edward Allan Poe, his drug and alcohol addiction, his weird mentality, his love and devotion for his wife whom he married when she was thirteen and his mysterious death. Edgar Allan Poe is truly a great writer.
6:05 PM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Poem - Messy Room by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!
This poem makes use of imagery. Imagery is language that appeals to our senses, descriptions of people or objects stated in our sense. It allows to be able to imagine what the author is writing. The words such as mucky, wedged, carelessly, hanging, damp, jammed, smelly and ashamed are words that describes the messy room and brings out the imagery of the poem. It also makes use of hyperbole with phrases like 'should be ashamed!' and "Oh, dear." Hyperbole is the use of an exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. It is not used to mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point.
I like this poem as it brings out the messiness of one's room with the humurous twist at the ending. There are many ways in which we could intepret this poem. It could be talking about the people in our society. They often comdemn people for their wrongdoings but they never accept their own mistakes. Or it could be talking about life. People plan and try to stick to those plans to keep their lives organised. But things do not always go the way we want to. Sometimes it goes to a point where we cannot recognise our lives. But we can clean up our lives at the end and get it organised again.
5:32 PM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
What Is Beauty?
People tend to say Beauty Lies In The Eyes Of The Beholder.
Well, There are 2 types of beauty.
Inner & Outer beauty.
Inner Beauty is 1 that cannot be seen.
It comes from the heart.
Inner Beauty comes from beneath the surface.
It shines through.
Inner beauty cannot be seen but can be felt by one's heart.
Outer appearances pale in comparison to what's inside a person.
People who focus on their looks are shallow.
They care on how people look at them and put up a show.
They are not what they are.
They are merely masking themselves to look good.
Plastic surgery, implants, make up, these are tools one uses to put up that show, to look better.
However, this is society.
The people of the society only look on the surface.
If you look better than others, you would score higher marks in that person's mind.
The society does not bother to look at who you really are.
People tend to neglect virtues.
They would backstab, sabotage one another to be the 1 to remain the last 1 standing.
This is for survival.
Inner beauty and outer beauty are differenciated from each other by a lot.
It is not possible to posses both.
Its up to 1 to think and decide what 1 wants.
Inner beauty cannot be seen and yet seen at the same time.
It takes much effort to have and nurture.
1 must know what is wrong and what is right.
Outer beauty is more important to most of us.
We want to look good.
But are we simply trying to fill up what we lack?
Are we trying to use our appearances to fill up the inner beauty we lack?
Outer appearances are much easier to get then the beauty inside of us.
Its a question of choice.
What do we really want?
We decide what we want for ourselves.
There is no real definition of beauty.
Our outer appearances?
Our character?
Our virtues?
Its all up to a personal definition of oneself.
Everybody has their own mind and definition of beauty.
We decide what is the real beauty for ourselves.
Outer beauty is the beauty which one can see when a stranger takes a 1st look at you but inner beauty which will shine through the rain and really show along the road.
Does having a pretty face means you are pretty?
Does it really mean it that way?
Its all on the surface.
Purely skin deep.
We should look deeper.
We should look beyond that surface.
Do not judge a book by a cover.
It's the same for us.
We should not judge a person by how he/she looks.
Try and learn to look beyond and beneath the surface.
Thats where beauty truly lies.
12:16 AM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
This is the Liar Paradox.
It was discovered by a greek logician in the 4th century B.C.
A paradox is something difficult to comprehend.
There are no truth value to such sentences~
Another example would be..
'This Sentence Is False'
It is also neither true nor false.
The Liar Paradox is a statement that cannot consistently be true or false at the same time.
This paradox 1st made its appearance whn Epimenides said 'The Cretans Are Always Liars'
The Liar Paradox show the contradiction whn the truth and false are brought together.
Under both hypothesis of true or false, the statements are always both true and false.
It's impossible to decide what is the best answer to such a paradoxical question.
There are no answers.
It is up to the reader to think.
The truth is complex.
Everybody decides the real truth for themselves.
They believe what they want to believe.
Even if it is false.
That is the process of self delusion.
People look at the truth from different points of view, from different angles.
There is no absoulute truth.
Only the truth which people determine for themselves.
Everybody only believes in themselves.
They think what they say goes.
What is the truth?
That is for ourselves to decide.
Do you hav more examples of liar paradoxes?
If yes, thn you are encouraged to post it as comments so that other users can have a look.
5:44 AM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.
Monday, June 8, 2009
MY 1ST SEMESTER AS A SECONDARY STUDENT
I have been slacking through th entire Semester. Yeah!!
The only fun things were...were... I'm not really sure...
Ouhh Yarhh!
JUDO!!
I can throw and flip people~
I took part in 3 competitions soo far.
Lost to my sec2 seniors T.T
But nvm.
I will PAWN the Sec1s nex year~
Yeahh~
Going to take grading soon~
After that I will have the rank of a yellow belt (5th Kyu)~
Training Dam Tough! >.<"
I want to slack..
I have training 3days a week each lasting around 4hours.
It can kill us~!
But is is really FUN throwing people and winning!!
Maths isn't going to well for me..
Failed every test x.x
I HATE questions which are not math olympaid!! T.T
I actually got an A1 for chinese and science in term2 test. O.O
Yeahh~
But it was luck..
Next term would be a disaster for me..
I hope I can improve on my maths ><
I shall use the June holidays to revise MATHS all over again!!
Waste of my time T.T
But..
I still have to do it.
Hmms..
WHAT OTHER THINGS TO POST!!
I have not been doing anything in school..
I have only put energy into my ep3..
EP3 IS FUNFUNFUN!!
There isn't anything about school T.T
I don't do my homework.
I don't pay attention in class.
*guilty*
I can't get to focus on homework or studies..
My grades will definitely drop (Higher MSG)
Sigh~
But..
I don't rly care =x
I would rather have fun~
There is no need to stress myself out :)
3:03 AM
My Thoughts ; My Colourless World.