The importance of listening - when and why

When listening and paying attention while another person is talking, we can learn more and also wont be left out in conversations or speeches.Other than that, we should also listen while attending a talk or course as we wont be wasting any time and money.

Recently, while a few classmates of mine was presenting about Dear Mr. Kilmer, other classmates including me, did not listen to what they were saying. As a result, we were forced to write blogs about their topic.

Listening is very important in our lives as it helps improve ourselves.

Write about an event that makes you angry.

The event that makes me angry is when Mrs. Hansen wants everybody to sign a card for Hannah and to let her know that they are there for her. Every student in Mrs. Hansen's class except Richard Knight did not sign the card. Although there are some students who wanted to sign but was scared of the other students or afraid of making them mad. The rest of the students didn't sign the card just because of the fact that the country is at war with the Central Powers. Richard Knight ended up being the only student who signed the card for Hannah. He decided to pass the card to Hannah himself and wrote some consoling words for Hannah as the card looks very empty.

I hope that the students who wanted to sign the card did so and not be scared no matter the consequences as it was the right thing to do. The Schermers are good American citizens and they did not deserved it.

My English Blog

When my English teacher, Miss Monica told us to write blogs and gave us topics to write to, we gave her a sad look and begged her to not do so. However, she said that it covers 50% of our exam marks. From that point on, writing my blogs has done nothing but increase my english marks ever since. Ive never liked doing blogs as I always have bring my laptop around in order to be able to write quality blogs. However, the more I write, the more bored i get. Now, I write blogs for the sake of my exam marks. The only benefit i get from writing blogs is that my typing skills has improved tremendously and also my skills on writing nonsense has improved too which might help me in my essays in the future. As prove of my typing skills improving, i wrote this blog in less than 8 mins.

What I learned from my classmates and my ulbs presentation

Firstly, i learned more about the novel that i might've missed and also more about the characters from the novel. I learned how to present better and also even more about novel while i was presenting as i didnt read the novel. ;)

Free Topic - What I Abhor It

When my phone vibrated with Miss Monica's messages on the screen, i was surprised. It seems to me that she didnt know what topic to give us to write about and has given us free topic to write about, literally. I dont really love writing free topics, in fact, i think it takes more time to write about, having to think about what to write about when i couldve just write about whatever topic was given. However, writing about free topics was easy enough as i can just write whatever came to my mind and whatever nonsense i could think of so that my blog looks longer. Even now, Im just trying to make this blog look longer. I guess this is what i abhor about free topics, i can just write whatever came to mind and not worry about it wandering away from the path. Thats all for this week. Peace.

Vocabulary test

How I'm Going To Utilise My English Period on Monday 25 February 2019

Im going to utilise my english period by working on my class' drama and make the props look more realistic.

The Plurality of the Malaysian Society and its effect on me

Malaysia consists of a highly diverse ethnic and religious composition. More than a third of the population is Malay, all of whom are Muslim. Chinese make up a third of the population, most of whom are Buddhists combining Taoist and Confucian practices, while a small number identify as Christian. Indians comprise a tenth of the population of which most are Hindu with a small minority of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. Various ethnic groups, such as different indigenous groups mostly situated in the Borneo region, and Eurasians and migrants workers, most of whom are Indonesians, make up the remaining of the population.

Despite the Muslim majority, Malaysia is not an Islamic state. Instead it is considered to be a “Malay-dominated plural society” where Malays, as the first people of the land, are entitled to special rights and privileges in the country as part of an ‘ethnic bargain’ between the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians during the formation of Malaysia in 1957 after nearly two decades under British rule. In exchange, the Chinese and Indians were granted Malaysian citizenship. This ‘ethnic bargain’ highlights the mutual respect and tolerance among these ethnic groups that has existed ever since they came into contact in the early 16th century in Southeast Asia. This mutual respect became the foundational basis for Malaysia’s multi-religious society.

The spectacular economic growth of Malaysia in recent years has greatly impacted the state of religious pluralism in Malaysia. However, this growth has also created an attitude of indifference, if not silence, when it comes to matters pertaining to religion in Malaysia. Many Malaysians are not prone to discuss religious matters publicly due to the sensitive nature of such discussion as well as a fear that such discussion might trigger racial unrest. The role of the government in promoting a policy of silence rather than active discussion regarding issues of religion further exacerbates this attitude of indifference. As a result, many Malaysians suffer from a paradox; they remain a sophisticated society in terms of their material growth but are constrained when it comes to understanding their multi-religiosity.

Fortunately, my peer group if made up of people of different races. We share memes and discuss religious matters openly. We trust each other enough to the point that talking about such delicate matters wont affect our lives.Therefore, I hope that all Malaysians can set aside their differences and accept each other into their lives as neighbours and friends.

Adopting a Doggo

Recently, i walked a friend of mine to atria. While we were walking a atria, we talked about dogs. Like most people, she wanted to buy a pup from a pet shop. I then asked her to adopt instead, which is a hundred times better for the doggo community. This is because adopted dogs tend to be more loving and caring as it knows that you have saved it from being euthanized. Moreover, being a chinese means having to get everything for free and adopting a dog has just met your requirement if youre a chinese. I hope that everybody remembers to adopt, not shop.

My Impression of Dear Mr. Kilmer

Dear Mr. Kilmer by Anne Schraff is a literature component for secondary schools and is compulsory for all students to read it. Its an interesting read and im thankful for this opportunity. I got so caught up reading Dear Mr. Kilmer that i read it in class while my teacher is teaching. If you have yet to read this book, please do so as it is as interesting as it can get.

Richard is not any typical boy who likes sports, being popular. He despise killing animals and enjoys writing poems, although he kept it a secret. After listening to Mrs Hansen reciting a poem written by none other than Mr. Kilmer himself, an inspired Richard decided to write a letter to Mr Kilmer. Soon, they became friends and would write to each other. However, Mr. Kilmer died in the war. Richard became sad and inspiration struck him into writing a poem. After reciting it to his friends, he decided to publish. Pa, Richard's father, whose brother died in the war, opened up to Richard and they became closer as a father and a son.

Dear Mr. Kilmer is a touching and interesting book. It has taught me a lot of things.

(DRAMA v.) Ping.. My mobile phone lit up with a message from Pn. Monica...

Ping.. My mobile phone lit up with a message from Pn. Monica. A part of me doesnt want to find out what she sent. However, curiosity got the better of me and i read the message. I was right, the school's drama competition is here. Maybe Pn Shahlawati is excited for it too, she came to our class just to help us pick our director, assistant director, tech guy, and prop master, which i would like to call prop guy. We nominated and the nominees walked out of the class for the rest of the students to cast their votes.

The results are, farisha as the director; samuel as her assistant; chua as play writer; as expected zenwei as the tech guy and chlarine as the prop master. The class couldnt ask for a better managing group and i hope that we actually stand a chance. Rumour has it that some teachers are bias and would choose the first class, angsana as the winner. This just became a challenge for me and hopefully the same goes for the drama team.

From here onwards, im only dreaming but this just might happen, who knows?

After reading countless suggestions from our fellow classmates, Chua finally presented to us with his new story masterpiece. Inspired by life, he wrote an award worthy story, enough to make the manliest man cry. A story about mankind's next step towards an advanced future, a boy named Boy. He is someone you would say is Godsend. As a young man full of potential and new ideas, Boy only wanted to improve and make his family's life easier. Born into a poor family, Boy and his sister, Girl, never got to enjoy things that 'normal people' got to enjoy every single day. Clean water and meat was a luxury his family couldnt afford or even dream of having. Fortunately, his parents left behind land for them to plant vegetables on. Surviving on just green leaves and potatoes made Boy want more for his little sister, for her to enjoy good food and a comfortable bed instead of a plastic sheet picked up from the streets.

With that as his motivation, Boy said his goodbyes to Girl. After making sure she has enough food to survive for the next few days, he set out searching for ideas. Staying at home, thinking of new things was not enough for him to create and sell for money, that he knew. However, he soon found a way, a way that he knew was what's going to help him bring food to the table. Boy then began to run around the entire town looking for the materials. Days passed and Boy never slept, excited and determined to finish what he started. Finally, his work is done and he examined his work, which he called the Thing. Tired and hungry, he quickly ate the bread and cheese he stole from a bakery while he was searching for his materials.

When he woke up, the Thing was missing. He frantically searched for it, bursting into tears when the Thing was nowhere to be found. Multiple times the Boy tried to kill himself with a stone, the only thing keeping him alive was the thought of Girl suffering at home. He then walked back home with his head down, tears slowly dripping off his chin. On his way back, he saw a man held up by a crowd of people cheering for him. Curious and with nowhere left to go other than his home, he decided to take a look. What he saw made him mad , he saw the guy holding the Thing. Taking a closer look, he realised the guy is the owner of the bakery he stole the bread and cheese from. He also realised that the owner followed him back to his camp made from banana leaves and stole the Thing while he was asleep. Driven by pure hatred, he ran towards the guy and punched him in the face. The surprised crowd immediately suppressed him and sent him to the sheriff for him to be put in jail.

Years later, Boy was released and he went home. He saw his younger sister lying on the ground. Boy was scared to death and immediately checked her for a pulse. Fortunately, Girl was alive but she was close to dying. Boy then carried her on his back to the hospital and the doctor immediately saved her. From the way the shape of Girl's ribcage were showing, Boy knew that she almost starved to death as she does not know how to plant vegetables. This made him sad and angry for not being careful, allowing the bakery owner to steal the Thing. He then left Girl in the hospital's care and set out looking for more ideas. This time, he was careful not to let anyone follow him and made camp at a place that no one ever goes. Inspired by his previous invention, he was able to create something that would serve a bigger purpose and is able to do so much more than his previous invention. Being in jail allowed him to think bigger and train himself, reading books given to him by the kind sheriff. With his new found knowledge, he was able to create, the THING in just a day. He first showed it to the mayor, who was amazed by his skills. Boy also told the mayor his story. After listening to Boy's story, the mayor immediately put the THING to good use for the town and paid Boy more money than he could dream of having. The whole town soon read his story on the newspaper...

My aspirations for 2019 and how to achieve them

New year resolutions... Whenever we forget or give up on them, they just keep coming back next year to kick us in the face and in a way forcing us to write blogs about them. I aspire to get fitter and stronger in order to be able to stay healthy and to protect myself, hopefully scaring off potential attackers or assassins. Other than that, i also aspire to improve myself in my studies and to get first in class. Moreover, practicing my basketball skills is also my first priority at the moment as MSSD is coming up and i hope that i WIN.

Holidays 2018 #4 and also the last one...

As you can tell from the title of the blog, the holiday has come to an end and this will be my last blog for 2018 (not really but just pretend i did this on 31 december;) ). I slowly packed my bag according to the timetable my friend sent to the group. I breather in and out, sighed and walked out of the study room with my bag, a burden on my shoulders as i realise what this year will bring. The only thing keeping my happy is thought of finishing SPM. All i could think of is what a d*ck studies are to students. They mess with our brains, filling it with knowledge but at the same time making us go through exams. However, knowledge has helped us more than we could count. Therefore, to those suffering and trying to keep up with your piled up homework, shut up and just do it.

Holiday 2018 #3

I have nothing left to say for this blog. Therefore, im trying my best to extend this blog as best as i can in order to let this blog be longer. From the use of words and vocabulary from above, i hope that my teacher will consider this blog a good one and a valid one. Moreover, this blog also sums up my holiday where im at home wasting my time instead of going out. From the previous sentence, its obvious that i have not run out of topic and is still staying on the right path as stated in the title of the blog. During the last week of my holiday, all i do is eat,sleep,shit,repeat. Maybe a few basketball sessions here and there but thats it.

Holidays 2018 #2

One of the reasons i hate doing blogs during the holidays is that it reminds me of how fast days go by and that another week bites the dust. Thankfully, I get to spend a quarter of my holidays in Taiping, one of the best place to be in Malaysia where good traditional food exists. Unfortunately, my family and I have to help at my grandfather's farm. He used to rear chickens and ducks but they all got slaughtered to fill our bellies so he planted oil palm trees instead. The thing about harvesting it is that u have to cut off the leaves at the lower part of the tree and its tough work. Being a city boy and also a boy who likes sports, i pushed through but got mosquito bites all over and some bites from unknown insects which left some poison in my hand and legs. Other than that, i also got cut from the thorns of the leaves that i fell, which also has poison.... In the end, the work is done and i ate a big meal.

Holiday 2018 #1

Although this blog is written in 2019, i still remember how its like back then. I was at the I-miss-school-and-yet-i-know-ill-miss-the-holidays stage. The only thing that got me back on being healthy was my workout programme where i try to train my leg muscles and stuff as i dont know the muscle names. The only reasons why i do workouts is because of a promise to a friend and to myself too that ill be fitter and stronger by next year. Now, theres muscles on my thigh and it looks like a huge bump everytime i flex my thigh which looks weird. Good thing about the workout programme is that it helps me grow taller and to jump higher. I hope that i can be that chinese boy among my peer group who dunks.