I'm sure many of you who are reading this are in your year end holiday period. Some of you are enjoying it and filled with busy schedules while some are just rotting at home, having no freaking idea of what you want to do with your life, just like me.
I've been thinking of a lot of things to do for the holidays, i've been trying to find a job but as you know, most jobs in Singapore require you to be 16 and above. UGH such a pain. I actually thought of working in Mcdonald's but they said that you have to work for at least six months, which means that i still have to work for another four months after school reopens, which i do not want. And being in a pure science class, i don't think i have time to work for 4 hours a day on the weekends. My concentration when school reopens would be on my studies.
I attended the Garena Festival at Bugis+ yesterday with some friends so i thought that our holidays can actually be used to participate in events that we do not have time to attend during normal school days. Use this 1 and a half or two months of holiday wisely and fully.
Instead of rotting at home, i would advice teenagers out there to go and look up in the internet for some events of your interest. It can be a gaming event which i attended yesterday or concerts by your favourite Singer or band such as the SM TOWN world tour concert that was held on Friday ( i didn't go, ticket sold out T.T ). Another good idea would be to take part in activities in the Community Club to pass time. It can be anything, chess, badminton, martial arts, etc. And to those who are old enough to get a job, GET ONE! You will learn new skills for sure and get some extra pocket money for the holidays :)
Well, that being said, i wish all of you a happy holiday!
I believe that any addiction is unhealthy. It can be addiction to the internet, video games, gambling, pornography, etc.
Sometimes, you may think that the things that you do are just for fun and normal, not knowing that it has become an addiction. What do i mean by an addiction? if you feel that the activity has made you lost interest in any other activities, especially important ones, then you have got an addiction.
After doing some research, i found out that people mistaken habits with addictions. Habits are the things that you do frequently and you are in control of it. The key word is " In control ". For example, i have a habit of going to Twitter every time i on my computer but i can choose not to. An addiction is something that you cannot control and always have the uncontrollable feeling to satisfy it. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on.
When someone is addicted to something, they lost control of how they use it and will be dependent on them. An addiction to me, is like a jail. You are trapped and forbidden to do anything else. In later stages, the addiction may not just be a jail, it will control over your entire life or it will turn evil. Drug addicts will be dependent on them and if they do not take it on a daily basis, they will turn ill or even become insane. Gambling addicts feel the need to gamble continuously and this will lead to shortage of money in their pockets. In turn it will lead to them borrowing from loan sharks and anyone should know what trouble they will get into if they are unable to return the money. Gaming addicts may forget about their schoolwork or neglect their friends because all they want to do is play their games.
So how do we get rid of an addiction? I know that its hard to do, but to get your freedom back, you must perservere. First of all, you must vow to yourself to quit the addiction. Addiction starts from the mind and ending it from the mind is a good choice. If you cannot handle it on your own, seek a family member or someone whom you trust to help you get rid of it.
Internet addicts may ask their family member to cut off the internet connection for some time, few weeks or months or go out for more outings with their friends and loved ones. Pornography addicts may want to block the sites from their computer. Drug addicts may ask a family member to keep a look out on them lest they get tempted to take the drugs or throw them all away. They may be suffering at first but due to the lack of drugs but after some time their bodies will be back to normal. Remember, if an addiction has taken over your life and make you not want to do anything else, it must be stopped.
I do not like how some parents forces their sons/daughters to study a certain course without considering whether its the child's interest or potential. They just think that a particular course is a course that will lead them to success.
I think that everyone has their own potential, everyone has the chance to succeed in the particular field that they are good at. Their parents may succeed in cooking for example, but its their parents' potential, not theirs. If someone do not have the potential to do certain things, what's the use of forcing them? And so what if the starting pay will be high? The person will not like what he/she is doing and he/she may not be able to achieve a lot from it. Whereas another person who love what he/she is doing may have more achievements from it, or maybe the boss will see through his/her passion and hardwork for the job and promote him/her to higher positions. I once heard someone said this, " If you love what you do, you'll more likely to do well. " I totally agree with it.
It is okay to give them advices, but it should be leading towards helping the child to discover their potential and their interest, rather than leading towards a particular course, because that is like pretending to give advice, but you are actually leading them somewhere rather than helping the person find something.
In my opinion, every course/field of study is good. It is not generally that a person who does marketing will make more money than someone who writes. Or someone who study law will make more money than someone who study medical sciences, it all boils down to your capabilities. Every course has the potential of making a fortune, in one way or another. Hence it is important to pick something that you are passionate about.
Facebook and Twitter are two social networking websites that i go into every single day. These two websites will be open as long as my computer is on, every minute, every second.
Some people may prefer Twitter while some does not see a point of creating a Twitter account and stick with Facebook. For me, i prefer Twitter but Facebook is still okay, i still go into it every single day.
Here are the reasons why i prefer Twitter to Facebook:
The main reason is that due to the increasing number of Facebook users moving on to Twitter, my Facebook seems so lifeless. There are not much updates to my news feeds as compared to my Twitter timeline.
On Twitter, nobody will give a shit if you keep posting random stuffs because you know what? Everyone's doing it! I really like just tweeting about what comes to my mind at the moment or what has just happened continuously but you cannot do it on Facebook. Recently i saw a friend of mine ranting about some stuffs on Facebook and his friend commented " Go and get a Twitter account ".
Another reason is because my family's on Facebook, i'm sure many of you can relate to it. I added my Dad and my sister on Facebook so i have to post private things on Twitter instead.
The last reason cannot be explained. I do not know why but i just seems to like Twitter more, its just seems.... Better .__.
I'm aware that many Asian parents use caning as a form of punishment. I have been caned by my parents when i was young because i was a naughty kid. They think that caning is a solution to their children's mischievous act. So, they use the cane anytime possible. Well, in my opinion, caning does not work.
Caning, no matter what the reason, is still considered child abuse. It is causing pain and harm to a child, which i think is a very inhumane thing to do. Many people think that by caning, the child actually becomes a good boy/girl or will become more hardworking in their studies as they fear the cane. But NO! It actually has the opposite effect on the child physically and mentally. The child actually turns from mischievous to rebellious. I'm not referring to all of them, because i do have a friend whose parents use the cane and he scores well in his studies. But still, his caning will not stop until he score STRAIGHT As which is sad :( I mean, come on his results are already outstanding.
I'm sure many of you had seen this picture above several times before. Mainly through Facebook or other websites. Anyway, it shows how an abused child will grow up. As you can see, if a child is abused, he will be abusive when he grows up too. Because he's living in a world of fear, a world whereby he is beaten and abused and this will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Here's another picture of the cycle of child abuse
In conclusion, caning and beatings should be avoided AT ALL COST. Seeing the harm it could bring to a child just because of a small mistake, it is a very scary thing. What i would advice is to shower a child more with love and care. Don't use caning as a first resort to everything. When he/she does something wrong, tell him/her what he/she has done wrong and give him a chance to realise his mistake.
You often hear many people saying that ITE stands for " Its The End " and that's for people who no longer have hope. Well, i'm here to remind you guys that ITE stands for " Institute of Technical Education " AND NOT " Its The End. "
Why are ITE students being looked down on? Seriously i do not understand. Firstly, I'm not an ITE student, i'm a Secondary 2E student and becoming a Secondary 3E student next year so i'm just here to give you my opinion on this topic that has been discussed in Singapore for quite some time. Well, I think that ITE is not the end, instead, i see ITE as a campus whereby Normal Technical students will have the chance to get back up and pursue their goals. Sure, they may take a way longer route than Normal Academic and Express students, but they still have hope.
If people say that ITE are like dustbins, then why is the government spending a lot of money on the courses and all? Its for a reason. I believe that every course and field of study is good, because the system DOES NOT decide what's best for you, you decide what's best for yourself!
Here are the reason why ITE is not" The End ". Firstly, ITE also provides courses, similar to Polytechnics. So, whatever the students learn in ITE will still be useful. Secondly, you can still go to Polytechnic from ITE by going to the higher nitec, and from Polytechnic you may just make it to University, Who knows? I have heard of many people who made it to Polytechnic and University from ITE, they just ignore the insults and demoralisation from people and work hard towards their goal. They want it and so they go for it. I have friends from the Normal Technical stream who are going to ITE next year or so and i do not look down on them, i actually encourage them to do their best there :)
This is a short blog post because these are just my opinions. In conclusion, i just want to say this. NO MATTER where you are, Express, Normal Academic, Technical, ITE, Polytechnic or university, you give your 100% effort. Do not lose hope because of where you stand.
I really love this song here. Its very motivational, Check it out. It is from a Singapore movie " 孩子不坏 ". Its an old movie but i love this song still :)
I watched the recent Jack Neo's movie " Ah Boys To Men " this afternoon at Shaw Theaters, Bugis Junction. Overall, the movie's great and hilarious. It shows the life of a few recruits going through their Basic Military Training from all walks of life and backgrounds.
Basically there are a few main characters in the movie.
The story begins by showing a war scene happening in Singapore. There was an unknown aircraft identified by the Singapore Air Force. The battle begun by a few aircraft shooting missiles at a few familiar buildings like the Esplanade and Singapore Flyer. There were many explosions and many innocent people hurt. I'm actually very impressed with the effects and all, i mean, its not easy to make those things. The Singapore infantry unit was then deployed and there were a few gun shots as they proceeded to clear the areas.
After a few minutes of explosions, gunshots and shouting, the whole scene turned out to be a game and the movie turns to Ken Chow playing a video game at a LAN shop with his girlfriend.
Even thought the war scene was just a game, i think there's a message behind that. The scene shows how chaotic war would bring to Singapore and what will happen to innocent people. So it is trying to say that we should not take the things that we have for granted and if war broke out unknowingly, what do we do? Many people think that National Service is a waste of our two years that we can use to pursue their studies and some unwillingly entered and constantly GENG ( pretend ) to be excused from training but the purpose of National Service is to protect our country and we should therefore do out best to train up so as to be operationally ready lest there's war.
Anyway, back to the story, Ken Chow did not want to go National Service as he wanted to go overseas with his girlfriend to study. He is a spoilt boy who lives in a comfortable home with a maid to assist him with everything. His dad tried to convince him to do his best to go to Officer Cadet School but his mother tried to find ways to help him skip NS and his uncle who taught him how to GENG to be excused for training. In his Basic Military Training School he met Lobang, which is his buddy, who gives his name cards to every person in the platoon and Pin Man AKA IP MAN.
After two weeks, the recruits finally booked out. Ken then found out that his girlfriend had dumped him for another man because she claimed that that man is less impulsive than him. This upsets him so much that he could not concentrate on his training when he came back to BMTC. He decided to win her heart back by appearing at the airport to send his girlfriend off so he decided to make himself sick to be sent to the hospital and secretly go to Changi Airport. He bathe with icy cold water and fan himself before wiping. He refused to drink during the road march and suffered from a heatstroke and was sent to the hospital immediately. This incident was reported to his family and his father drove to the hospital in the middle of his meeting. Due to his poor heart condition, he collapse and this lead him to a car accident. Ken finally see through his selfish action and this changed him. If he had listened to his father and do his best in army, he would not have landed his father in the hospital.
Unknowingly, this turned out to be just the first part of the entire movie. Can't wait for the second part of the movie to be out! :D To those who haven't watched it yet, i hope this review of mine will let you know what to expect when watching it ^^
For those of you who do not know, i am a martial art enthusiast. I read and watch a lot about martial arts. I like to discover various different styles of martial arts and their effectiveness, where did it come from, etc.
The topic on modern and traditional martial arts suddenly came to me and i thought that i can tell you guys some of my opinion about this topic. First of all, my karate association is like a mixture of both modern and traditional since it is under the World Karate Federation ( which aims to get into the Olympics by 2020 ), an international sports Karate federation. During my karate training, there are still some traditional elements like Kata ( Forms ) and Kihon ( Basics ). Some Karate schools in Okinawa or various parts of the world still train ONLY by traditional methods, but not my association.
How to differenciate between traditional and modern martial art? Well, from what i read in a martial art forum, traditional martial arts meant that its training consists of things that are from a hundred OR thousand years ago, this includes forms ( a set of movements of attack and defense against imaginary opponents ) , traditional stances, etc.
Here's two pictures of traditonal Karate stances
Modern martial arts are fighting systems that had been modified to suit either the sports arena or the modern world. Examples are kickboxing and Krav Maga. Traditonal Martial arts tend to be long to master because of its complexibility. I remembered that i only learned how to spar after about 6 months of being a white belt, that was because my Katas and Kihons were okay. Modern martial arts however, are not as complex as traditional martial arts and you can expect to learn how to spar just by attending your first training. That is why many people who like to learn things quickly say that they rather go to boxing or MMA class.
I think the reason due to the complexibility of traditional arts is because the training are all linked and must be followed through a sequence. I mentioned that i could only do sparring after my Kihon and Katas are okay, that's because if your Kihon has a high level of proficiency, your sparring will too, its interconnected.
So, which one's better? The one that is complex or the one that is simple and easy to master? Many people said that modern martial arts are more suited to handle the dangers and violence of the 21st Century as they think that nobody carries a Samurai sword or a Bo staffs these days. Therefore, modern martial arts are able to defend better against modern weapons like guns and knifes.
Well, i do agree with that point, but, let us look at another perspective. The hand to hand combat techniques of modern martial arts actually comes from century year old arts. Seen from the pictures below, the block executed by the Krav Maga man actually comes from Jodan Age Uke/ Rising high block of Karate.
Another one. The MMA armlock is orginated from Jujitsu
In conclusion, both can be effective if trained well. Traditional fighting techniques were created centuries ago for combat so its effectiveness had been proven for decades.
