"Who cares for the caregivers?" Article

After reading this article, i feel that many caregivers are not given enough help and attention as they should. the patients themselves are of course need to be taken care of, but the caregivers are often the ones who make the most sacrifices to help look after the patients. For the father of the first patient, not only did he try and offer his entire fortune to a nursing home in order to take care of his son, he was even willing to kill his son in order to "save" him from suffering any longer. I can imagine the horror and pain that was filling him when he was trying to kill his son. Many people say that they try and help patients by spending time with them, acting as company. But how about their family members? It is them who do the most and them who dedicate the most too.

handicap people have all sorts of different needs, and to take care of them is not an easy task. those people who are taking care of them have to sacrifice a lot, and even though they know that, they continue to take care of the handicap patients.

I think that even though it requires alot of effort to take care of the handicap patients, for the sake of morality we should take responsibility and do our part in taking care of the patients. Since taking care of handicap patients requires a lot of work, shouldn't we try to make their lives better by creating a better environment for them? Everyone deserves a chance to live their life to the fullest, even if you have to endure hardships to achieve that goal.

Character Traits

I think that the Venus children did not do very well in dealing with someone who was different from them because they were not just a bit cruel to her by locking her in a closet but also they could not accept that the one person who was so different from them got to see something that they had only dreamed of seeing. I think that in reality, if we encounter anyone who is different from the rest of the "group", we should embrace that person's indifference and we shouldn't shun him/her away. What the Venus children lacked i feel was the inability to feel for Margot and, what she missed back on Earth.

But i also think that Margot was not really trying to fit in at all with the other children as not only did she ignore them and not join in with them in their games, although the children did try and include her at first, but she kept to herself and always sat on her own, not trying to be a part of the class.Not just that, but Margot was always sulking about how she wanted to go back down to Earth, and didn't try and adapt to the life on Venus.

I think she should not have done this as if she had accepted her classmate's invites to join their games, she might have been able to actually enjoy her time on Venus. also i think that if she didn't ignore her classmates, she wouldn't have been shut in the closet and deprived of her time to see the sun. what Both the Venus children and Margot should both learn to have is patience and to have acceptance towards both parties

Masses of crimson and amber-tinted clouds painted the sky as the sun waltzed in from the horizon, decorating the sparkling lake with millions of bright, dazzling rays. The warm, gentle touch of sunlight bathed the wooden boat in a shimmering array of gold. I sat down softly on the bank as the sun wrapped around me like a warm blanket, comforting me.

A golden hue glinted from the still blue water, as it mirrored the crimson sky above it. As i watched, a tiny drop of dew fell into the water with a splash, causing the perfect image of the sky to shimmer briefly in ripples of gold. I stared vacantly into the horizon as the lake calmed, displaying the serene picture once more.

I smiled. All was calm.

Are you young and Happy?

I think in some ways i fit the description of the average youth, but i also think that there are some points which i feel i am different from the rest of the youth.

I think that the figures of this survey are not very liable for one thing as i think that their sample size of 1,268 youths is way too small to make a general assumption of the happiness and life satisfaction of Singapore's youth.

Why Chinese Mothers are Superior Article

I think what I found the most interesting after reading this excerpt was how despite living in america her whole life, Amy Chua did not waver in any way with her perspective of a Chinese mother's teaching. I do think though in my perspective that although it is good to be very strict on your child so as to realise the child's full potential, but I think that what Amy Chua did was a bit "overboard".

I have had some of these limitations that Amy Chua had set for her children before, like not being able to sleepover or not being allowed to play computer games when I was younger, but unlike her, my parents did not enforce the other rules like not being allowed to choose my own activities. I do think that although it is in Chinese parents’ perspective that their child can do well academically through constant drilling of practice, in my opinion parents shouldn’t deprive children of certain aspects like for example in Amy Chua’s case, her children not being allowed to play any other instrument other than piano or violin.

Piano and violin are of course good instruments to play, but I think that there is nothing wrong with playing other instruments and it is always good to learn an extra instrument to play. In terms of grades, i tend to sway more towards the Western way of dealing with grades. Why? Grades are after all just grades. Although they are worth a lot in this world, what i think a child needs the most is encouragement to continue to persevere and try and improve on their own. Of course the Chinese way has its good points too and constant disapproval from parents can also help the child to improve himself/herself.

Overall, i do agree with some points of Amy Chua's, but i also think that a Western Parents way of teaching can also benefit a child.

the main message of my comic strip is to tell people that hard work does pay off and if you don't put in any effort into something, you can never achieve good results.

For the first frame, the setting is in a soccer field where many kids are having fun playing soccer there. I put this frame here as i wanted to show that the children are spending lots of time in the field playing soccer.

For the second frame, i changed the setting to a classroom, where some students are going out again to play soccer. I am trying to signify that the students are disregarding their studies and putting their leisure of playing soccer before their academics. I placed the empty desk and chair there to show that the chidren are leaving their studies in a corner and going to enjoy themselves instead of sitting down in class to study.

In the third frame, it shows the teacher writing down the word "Exam" on the board. Most of the children in the frame are in shock while there are a few students who quietly finish their exam. this is to show how the students who neglected their studies did not know how to do their exams and therefore were at a loss while those who studied were able to complete the exam quickly.

The final frame changes into somewhat of an office where the teacher is giving the students their marks. One student fails while the other gets an A. This is to show how people who work hard at what they are supposed to do will surely exceed those who don't. And if you keep playing and not working, you will never achieve any commendable results.

Mum, Singaporeans are very kind

I think that after reading this, i feel not just happy for the boy that he has managed to have good friends and fit in the mainstream school. I found it interesting that the Singaporean students were so much more welcoming towards the kid while the international students rejected him so much. I think that it is important to learn that it doesn't matter what problem anyone has, but we should always care for them just the same, and everything will turn out fine.

We shouldnt be influenced on pre-conceived ideas but instead to change those ideas and show that these people are just like us. It is just amazing when you see someone like that go from being all moody and depressed to enjoying every moment of his life as someone who is accepted into the community.

19/1/11 Blog Prompt

Is it better to have never known something to have known something but to ultimately lose it later?

I think that it is better to have known something and lose it later as i think that even though it is out of your reach, at least you have had the experience of seeing or feeling it. The important thing i think is to not get too attached to it, but instead to enjoy the moment, and treasure the memory, and not let it pull you down.

Take, for example love(just a example :D), a poor boy meets a rich girl, and even though he falls in love with her, he knows he cannot be with her. So instead of constantly longing for the girl, he treasures and keeps the memory of her close to him, and uses it to brighten his day sometimes.

If you have never known something, even though you may never suffer any regrets, you will also never experience the good things in life. One amazing moment is enough to last a lifetime.

"Have you ever been part of a group of people...." Blog Prompt

Have you ever been part of a group of people who were unkind to one or some individuals? what was the circumstance? How did you act? What did you feel?

i have been a part of this kind of group before, and it was a few years back acually, when i was still in primary school.The class was split up into many groups of 4 as part of a group assignment we were supposed to do. For me, i was quite lucky to get 2 of my good friends in my group, but the last group member was someone who one of my friends had a slight dislike to. This guy was quite obese, and so whenever we needed to come together as a group to discuss the assignment, we would tease him about his size and not include him in some discussions. I was actually part of the group that was teasing him, but after a while of thinking i realized my mistakes and stopped.

I felt that it wasn't really right of us to tease him about his size, and so i decided to get my friends to stop too. Only after much reluctancy did my friends also agree to stop teasing him. I thought to myself that if we didn't constantly tease him, not only would he be less affected, we might even be able to get more things done with him for the assignment.

In the end, we worked together as a group, and we did excellent for the assignment, and that guy came to be one of my good friends.

Goal Setting

Personal Goals for 2011 (English)

1. What went well for LA last year?

I enjoyed the lessons last year alot as i had a very good teacher in the first three terms, Mr Teo, and the class discussions that we had were always very active and fruitful. There was always something to talk about during class and i think it was really good that most of the class got involved in these discussions. I think that even though my grades for LA were not very good, i did learn alot of skills and learnt how to better enjoy literature as a whole.

2. What went wrong?

After a while, i did not push myself to learn and i did not do many practices to help me with my studies. I was also less enthusiastic after a while, and did not try and learn more. I stuck to the bare minimum of work and did not study frequently.

3. What is my LA target for 2011?

My target grade for terms 1, 2 and 3 is A1 so that i can be exempted from the EOYs. I also hope to learn more writing skills and analytic skills so that i can better understand the texts.

4. How do i acheive this target?

I think that through more practices like Reading Rites and more writing, i can acheive my target. I can also pay more attention in class and get help from friends who are better in LA than me.

Yay! my new blog is up! HAHAHA