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Monday, April 23, 2007
wow i forgot to bring my jacket to school hahax haiz had to borrow one from shiu an for awhile today.so sad i'm partnerless for today, since rachel went for choir syf today. hope they won gold with honours!!!!!! woots!!!!!! that'll b so cool hahax nvm i can see her tomorrow, hope she rmbs to bring along my phantom of the opera soundtrack cd, hahahahx. it's so super noisy now hahax music blasting bla bla. did the ce presentation today in class for ce project, hahahax how fun:) they were waiting for me to go to the toilet then start the presentation, so paiseh ahahhx we suggested that our school can have a wider range of ccas ahahx.
oh man i forgot to bring my foolscap paper today, so super duper inconvenient hahahx haiz tomorrow got to pass up the english theme essay and reflections haiz. someone is being so weird next to me. bla bla bla trying to act cool or something, yadayadayada. How boring.
later still have to go for learning lab haiz. super boring. gwynna doesn't want to come back to my class, waa so mean now left debbie and me. but debbie always can't come for learning lab, so what's the difference haiz.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Case Against New Shopping Centre Development
It has just been announced that a major developer is seeking planning permission to build a shopping centre on the edge of the town and that the town council is likly to agree to this proposal. A protest group has been formed to mount a campaign against such a development and I am very much on the side of the protesters.
For a start, we already have quite enough plpaces to purchase things in this area. We have the local shops, we have the city shops just a bus ride away and we have a shopping mall in the next town, again just a short bus ride away. We simply do not need more shopping facilities in this area.
Then there is the issue of increased traffic. The town council is always going on about the terrible traffic problems in this area. It has been urging us all to leave our cars at home and to either walk or take public transport so that we may avoid the current congested roads. Yet, now it appears to be in favour of a development which can only increase the level of congestion. Of course, there is to be a huge car park at the proposed new shopping centre.
We also have to take into consideration what effect a new shopping centre in the area would have on the viability of our own high street shops. At the moment, despite the proximity of the city, many of them have no shortages of customers and so are thriving businesses. However, there is a distinct disincentive for people wishing to make purchases from such shops.
There is a major parking problem for people wishing to shop in the centre of the town, thanks to the strict parking restrictions imposed by the council. Given the choice of shopping with their cars or shopping without them, I fear that many shoppers will opt for the former and make for the new shopping centre rather than the local shops. Such a loss of business will have extremely unfortunate consequences for local shops and some of them may go to the wall. That would be a tragedy for the community.
Another tragedy for the community would be the damage to the environment that a building development like this is likely to cause. There are very few pieces of land in this area that are not built up and the area scheduled for the shopping complex is one of these. It is not an especially pretty place, but it provides a habitat for plants and animals and it offers some relief from the crowded built-up areas around. In addition, more cars driving into that area will add significantly to the pollution of the atmosphere.
The developers are arguing that their proposed shopping complex will not only provide local people with more retail choice but that it will provide local jobs. However, the extra jobs may well be at the expense of jobs in the high street shops if they have to close. I will give as much support as possible to the protesters and hope that the shopping centre does not get planning permission.
Why People Are Living Longer
In the developed countries at least, the life expectancy of people has increased quite considerably over recent decades. More and more people are living into the eighties and even their ninties and there are various reasons for this.
Medical advances have done much to prolong people's lives. Improved diagnostic techniques have made it possible for doctors to detect the signs of disease much earlier than before. This enables them to treat conditions at a much earlier stage and early intervention, particularly in the case of some cancers, can do much to save lives.
Many countries have developed screening programmes to enable doctors to identify certain diseases. An early example of this was the introduction of mass screening by chest X-ray for tuberculosis. More recently, in several countries, women over a certain age are asked to have a mammogram, an X-ray of the breasts taken every two years or so as a means of detecting breast cancer.
Some governments have introduced health education programmes. This has been done to make people more aware of their bodies and of any changes which may occur. People are thus much better informed and are more likely to visit their doctors early enough to prevent diseases from becoming fatal.
There have been major advances in medical treatment as well as in medical diagnosis in recent decades. More and more sophisticated drugs are used to treat cardiac disease, hypertension and strokes, more technically known as cerebrovascular accidents. These dugs prevent people from dying of such conditions at an early age. Meanwhile, chemotherapy and improved forms of radiotherapy are saving the lives of many cancer patients.
Advances in surgical techniques also prevent many people from dying at a relatively young age. One of the most major advances was the introduction of transplant surgery by Dr Christiaan Barnard that has saved so many lives.
There is no doubt that better medical care has done much to keep people alive longer. However, it is not the only reason for increased lifespans. Better living conditions have also played a part. More people in the developed world now live in warm, dry accommodation and are much healthier because of this.
Then there is the fact that more people are now better informed about nutrition and are more able to afford the ingredients of a healthy diet. Eating the right foods, such as fruits and vegetables can, for example, do much to prevent people from developing high levels of cholesterol, thought to be a factor in the occurrence of heart diseases and strokes. In addition, more people are also better informed about what represents a danger to their health, such as smoking, and are actively trying to avoid such dangers.
The tendency towards longer lifespans looks set to continue as medicine introduces more and more life-saving techniques. However, with people in the developed world dying nowadays from the effects of obesity instead of, as before, from malnutrition, there are signs that our modern lifestyle may, in fact, shorten some lifespans.
an essay from Betty Kirkpatrick
Should Smoking In Public Places Be Banned?
Some countries, such as Singapore and the UK, have already introduced legislation which imposes a ban on smoking in workplaces and other public areas. Other countries are considering such a ban and this has given rise to much controversy among the population of these countries.
My view is that everyone has a right to work in a comfortable, clean, healthy environment and should not have to put up with other people's nicotine habit. Smoking is a very antisocial habit which, at the very least, can cause discomfort to others in the form of a smoky atmosphere and dirty surroundings caused by dropped cigarette ash on the floor, overflowing ashtrays and discarded cigarette ends.
Smokers also endanger the health of others. If people want to ignore the dangers and go on smoking, despite the known dangers, then that is their choice. However, it is now known that the inhalation of cigarette smoke by non-smokers, known as passive smoking, can lead to various health problems in the same way that smoking can. It is unjust that smokers should be allowed to have a deleterious effect on the health of their workmates.
Protesters against a smoking ban in the workplace claim that such a ban is contrary to the human rights of smokers, but smokers are, in fact, infringing the human rights of their colleagues by endangering their health and polluting their environment.
Smokers also complain that they have to go outside the building to smoke in all weather conditions. They also claim that smoking outside a building makes them look and feel like pariahs. However, this is the price they have to pay for persisting in indulging in such an antisocial habit.
The same no-smoking rule should apply to public places such as government offices, libraries, sport complexes and airports. People often have no choice but to go into such buildings and they have a right to have their health and comfort safeguarded from the habits of others. Most airlines ban smoking and smokers have to resist the temptation to light up during the course of the flight. Why should they not demonstrate the same level of self-control in public buildings?
The question of imposing a ban on smoking in public places of entertainment has caused the most controversy. Restaurant owners, publicans and brewers ae vehemently opposed to it because they say that it will affect their livelihood and smokers say that it will affect their enjoyment of an evening out. Non-smokers, they say, need not go into a smoky pub or restaurant.
However, these places of entertainment are also workplacces and the waiters, barpersons and other service personnel shouold not have to put their health at risk by being subjected to cigarette smoke. In the light of this, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York has already announced a smoking ban in restaurants and pubs and Ireland has followed suit. I hope that many other countries will follow their example and impose a no-smoking ban in all public places.
The Baroque Sonata
a composition in several movements for one to eight instruments
Composers often wrote trio sonatas, so called because they had three melodic lines: two high lines and a basso continuo. Yet the word trio is misleading, because the "trio" sonata actually involves fouor instrumentalists. There are two high instruments (commonly violins, flutes, or oboes) and two instruments for the basso continuo - a keyboard instrument (organ or harpsichord) and a low instrument (cello or bassoon).
The sonata originated in Italy, but spread to Germany, England, and France during the seventeenth century. Sonatas were played in palaces, in homes, and even in churches - before, during, or after the service. Sometimes composers differentiated between the sonata da chiesa (church sonata), which had a dignified character and was suitable for sacred performance; and the sonata da camera (chamber sonata), which was more dancelike and was intended for performance at court.
Basso continuo
(1) chords: harpsichord/orga/lute
(2) low-sounding instrument: cello/double bass/bassoon
1. sonata da chiesa: church sonata
2. sonata da camera: chamber sonata
e.g. Corelli, Vivaldi, Telemann
The Fugue
written for a group of instruments or voices, or for a single instrument like an organ or harpsichord. A fugue is a polyphonic composition based on one main theme, called a subject. Throughout the fugue, different melodic lines, called voices, imitate the subject. The top melodic line - whether sung or played - is the soprano voice, and the bottom is the bass. The texture of a fugue usually includes three, four, or five voices. Though the subject remains fairly constant throughout, it takes on new meanings when shifted to different keys or combined with different melodic and rhythmic ideas.
The form of a fugue is extremely flexible; in fact, the only constant feature of fugues is how they begin - the subject is almost always presented in a single, unaccompanied voice. By thus highlighting the subject, the composer tells us what to remember and listen for. In getting to know a fugue, try to follow its subject through the different levels of texture. After its first presentation, the subject is imitated in turn by all the remaining voices.
First voice: tonic scale
Second voice: dominant scale (answer)
countersubject: different melodic idea
episodes: transitional sections between presentations of subject (offer either new material or fragments of subject/countersubject)
stretto: subject is imitated before it is completed; one voice tries to catch the other
pedal point/organ point: single tone (usually in bass) held while the other voices produce a series of changing harmonies against it
A fugue subject can be varied in four principal ways:
1. inversion : turned upside down
2. retrograde : beginning with last note of subject and proceeding backward to the first
3. augmentation : lengthened time values
4. diminution : shortened time values
prelude: short piece introducing an independent fugue
eg. Bach, Handel
hahax please ignore my posts if you don't wanna read it i'm just typing for revise sake hahx taken from Roger Kamien's textbook
The Concerto Grosso and Ritornello Form
In a concerto grosso, a small group of soloists is pitted against a larger group of players called the tutti (all). Usually two and four soloists play with anywhere from eight to twenty or more musicians for tutti. The tutti consists mainly of string instruments, with harpshichord as part of the basso continuo. A concerto grosso presents a contrast of texture between the tutti and the soloissts, who assert their individuality and appeal for attention through brilliant and fanciful melodic lines. The soloists were the best and highest-paid members of the baroque orchestra, because their parts were more difficult than those of the other players. Concerti grossi were frequently performed by private orchestras in aristocratic palaces.
A concerto grosso consists of several movements that contrast in tempo and character. Most often there are three movements: (1) fast, (2) slow, (3) fast. The opening movement is usually vigorous and determined, clearly showing the contrast between tutti and soloists. The slow movement is quieter than the first, often lyrical and intimate. The last movement is lively and carefree, sometimes dancelike.
The first and last movvements of concerti grossi are often in ritornello form, which is based on alternation between tutti and solo sections. In ritornello form the tutti opens with a theme called the ritornello (refrain). This theme, always played by the tutti, returns in different keys throughout the movement. But it usually returns in fragments, not complete. Only at the end of the movement does the entire ritornello return in the home key.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
wow today was quite interesting during CE lesson, we all went to the lecture theatre and lo and behold, we were going have another session of CareerQuest talk, which we had last year (that's like ancient rite hahax) so i'm an I personality:)) ahhahax that is so right man, hahahahax don't even need to take the test i think i know i'm I personality already. and i have to do a timetable for my own good, aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!! coach david was right, people with I personality hate timetables and are careless and disorganized, which is so ME!!!!!!! wa lao i hate doing timetables, a waste of time exactly, haiz. but anyway, i learnt a lot about myself today, hahax and some tactics as to how to study and learn better and know more about myself, hahax:) today was supposed to have bio rememdial after school. turned out that none of the bio teachers were free today so we didn't have to go for any bio remedials in the end, yay! hahax so cool but we still waited outside the AVA room for quite some time before someone came and told us that there was no bio rememdial today haiz. information passes so slowly rite, hahax:)
today i'm in such a math mood, dunno why suddenly love doing math, especially maxima and minima problems which involve differentiation hahax practically doing math the whole day today ahhahax (see here some tiny confession made if you read in between the lines, hahahax especially teachers should look out for this *hinthint* hahax i'm killing myself diaoz hahax)
yayy i managed to finish the whole of worksheet one on maxima and minima problems, yipee!!!!! and now i'm feeling depressed all over again. still have worksheet 2 to go, on maxima and minima problems again-_- i wonder how long my 'burning' and 'fiery'enthusiasm can last for math, haiz. once the flames go out, i won't be in the mood for doing math, and i won't want to do any math haiz, sadded.
it's so freezing cold, my fingers are like numb, it's turning purple soon, ahahx oh yesterday my hands were so cold and numb to the extent that there will be this consistent prickly feeling if i touch anything and my fingernails turned fully purple, eew gross rite hahahx how interesting this has something to do with bio yo, ahahhahax i hope i don't suddenly switch from amath-enthu to bio-enthu, ahhahax that word 'enthu' sounds like some malay or indian or punjabi word (sorry i don't know how to spell punjabi).yesterday people are like blasting some weird wacko music, so noisy, no consideration for other people like me who are FERVENTLY and FURIOUSLY doing amath trigonometry sums in the TYS, hahax (it's true i swear, i'm super hardworking hahahax) then there was this three girls sitting next to me who were doing their reflections i think for Odyssey of the Mind project, and they were complaining amongst themselves aboutr the inconsiderate person who was blaring and blasting the music. oh my god hahahahahahax someone is playing this funny video about this indian man who is trying to tell his customer that he doesn't sell pork, i think some kind of communication problem hahahax omg it sounds so funny the indian man talk until so cute hahax he keep saying he no pork, and he threatens to call the police, ahahhahax i don't know la damn funny everyone is laughing like siao ahhahahax XD
Thursday, April 12, 2007
haiz i'm so bored today didn't go to school yesterday haiz got stomach nerve problem or pain ahhax haiz anyway i got mc hahax why do people always think that i pon school ah, people like me so guai how can i possibly pon leh, hahahx just jokin la
my nose hurts, i scratched it and it became bloody and formed a scab and dried blood crust, now i can't 'stretch' it very pain ahhax my hand is freezing man i'm still in school wa wanted to send this electroplating document to one of my group members for chemistry but the file expired aaacks!!! now what am i supposed to do????? waaacks!!! hate it man haiz
Thursday, April 05, 2007
let's talk about voodooism hahax:)
Voodooism
- Haiti, West Africa
- confusion with New Orleans "hoodooism"
- nailing crude puppets with a discarded shoe on trees near the cemetery to act as messengers to the other world
- honour special deities with specific rituals
another interesting fact, look on:)
Children of the Corn
- originally a short story by Stephen King
- couple set out on a cross-country road trip to California, and ran over the body of a young boy who was killed and thrown onto the road
- Gatlin(a small, isolated town):years previously the town's children murdered everyone over the age of 18 after embracing the bloody pseudo-Christian cult of an evil being that lurks in the corn fields:"He Who Walks Behind The Rows"
- the children kill the wife, while the husband escapes into the cornfields surrounding the town, where he is killed in person by the children's god
hey hope you guys enjoyed the 'informative talk' on Paganism in my previous entry! hahax today's topic shall be more familiar to you i hope, hahax
Shamanism
-a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world
- its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and in some societies, the ability to cause suffering
- forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits
- shamans credited with ability to control weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds
- intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, who travels between worlds in a state of trance
- once in the spirit world, the shaman would commune with the spirits for assistance in healing, hunting or weather management
- seen as communicating with the spirits on behalf on the community, including spirits of the dead
- shaman may be initiated via a serious illness, by being struck by lightning and dreaming of thunder to become Heyoka, or by a near-death experience, or one might follow a 'calling' to become a shaman
- shaman blessed with spiritual powers
- found more widespread in less economically developed countries
let's talk about paganism!!
hahax let's be enthu man hahax
ok i'm mad
here it goes..
...................
-encompasses a diverse community with some groups concentrating on specific traditions, practices or elements such as ecology, witchcraft, Celtic traditions or certain gods.
-Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists, Odinists and Heathens make up parts of the Pagan community
- strongly emphasises equality of the sexes
- may be collective or solitary worship
- ceremonies usually begin with marking out of a ritual circle, a symbol of sacred space which has neither beginning nor end, and within which all stands as equals
- at quarter-points, the four directions and the corresponding elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water will be acknowledged and bid welcome
- meditation, chanting, music, prayer, dance, the pouring of libations, recitations of poetry and/or the performance of sacred drama, sharing of food and drink
- pagan worship is mainly concerned with concern to and honouring of immanent divinity
- rituals akin to a symbolic language of communication between the human and the divine: one which speaks not to the intellect alone but also to the body, the emotions, and the depths of the unconscious mind, allowing Pagans to experience the sacred as a whole people within act of worship
- approach primarily mythopoeic, recognising that spiritual truths are better understsood by means of allusion and symbol rather than doctrine
- 3 types of Paganism: meso-paganism, neo-paganism, neo-dindruism
- Wicca: worhips Mother Goddess
5 elements = fire, air, water, earth, spirit
widely populated
"Charmed" television serial -> exaggerated version of paganism (involves witchcraft)
well that's the end of our topic of the day, Paganism! give a round of applause!!! hahahahx
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
yoz all i haven't blog for a day since hahax ok that sounds super duper pathetic hahax haiz wushu competition coming soon i'm scared till i can just pee in my pants on the spot hahax ok i shall share with you some interesting things that i found out today:) i specially went to research on it, don't worry it's not from Reader's Digest hahax from everywhere on the internet. enjoy reading it:)
Children of the Corn
This was originally from a short story by Stephen King, then made into a horror film. A couple set out on a cross-country road trip to California, and ran over the body of a young boy who was already killed and thrown onto the road. Gatlin, which is a small and isolated town, in the years previously the town's children murdered everyone over the age of 18 after embracing the bloody pseudo-Christian cult of an evil being that lurks in the corn fields: "He Who Walks Behind The Rows". The children kill the wife, while the husband escapes into the cornfields surrounding the town, where he is killed in person by the children's god.
spooky isn't it? hahx
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
heyys hahax shall give you all a break from the humongous amounts of newsweek and reader's digest articles, although SOMEONE commented to me that it was super boring hahax thanks a lot theophila, but it's enriching right? adds more knowledge to your brains, so don't complain ahahx i put in so much effort to type all those reports and articles out, type until my hand tired, so must at least thank me rite hahax just joking la hope that you all will continue reading stuff that i post:) hahax ok nvm i'm just crapping hahax haiz today the computer damn laggy la hahax ok nvm i'm just complaining and complaining yay later can eat nasi lemak cool eh;)
‚Start of Something NeW
3:21:00 PM
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