Monday, January 25, 2010

My 14th Birthday

1 year ago, I had just turned 13.
1 year ago, was the first day of Chinese New Year.
1 year ago, I was just new to HCI.
1 year ago...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

What An Eventful Day

Well today was quite special in a sense that I was both happy, disappointed, surprised and a mixture of many other feelings. So I shall tell you what happened today.

This morning I went to church with my family as usual on every Sunday. Then we went to Bras Basah to send my sister for he Mathematics tuition. My parents, my other sister and I then went to a famous chicken rice stall for lunch. Before long it was time to fetch my sister from the tuition centre.

As we were taking the lift up to level four, my mother decided to sign me up for Mathematics tuition too. I protested violently but to no avail. I was quite disappointed as I do not like the idea of tuition and more homework. As we were making our way to my sister's classroom, we decided to take a peek at the Secondary 2 Mathematics class that my mother had planned to sign me up for.

To our surprise, the teacher was actually my father's ex-lecturer in Hwa Chong Junior College way back in the 1980s. My father was very surprised! As the Secondary 2 class had just ended, my father and his ex-lecturer had a long chat. My father told me that he was a very good teacher and urged me to join his class. Anyway what say did I have to stop my parents from signing me up for tuition? However, according to my father, his ex-lecturer was excellent with Mathematics. He even has a doctorate in Mathematics!

Well... maybe it is not such a bad idea to join his tuition class after all.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Hello everyone, I am Sean Lim. I am in the school’s Track and Field team. I love running and my main event is the 400m hurdles.

I have 2 sisters. In my free time, I like to play with my sisters and watch videos showing my favourite sprinter of all time, Tyson Gay. He is a very humble and inspirational man and that is what I like about him. You can check out some of his videos by clicking the links below.

Now, I shall tell you more about the subjects which I like and dislike. I like Mathematics a lot. I find it a thrill to solve difficult sums. The sense of achievement you receive cannot be described by words. I do not like History as there is a lot of memorising work to do. Sometimes, I may forget some facts and this will result in me doing badly for my History paper.

This year, I hope to do better in my History and Geography as these two subjects always pull my MSG grade down. I also want to improve in my Mathematics, Sciences, Language Arts and Chinese. I have introduced myself. Will you do the same to? Please leave you blog’s link when you comment so that I can check out your blog and get to know you better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y4ftPU6-U8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3x4Ohl8lw

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Preparation for End of Year Exams

Language Arts

Contrary to what Dr. Hon said that there was nothing to study for Language Arts, I feel that Language Arts is the subject that I should pay the most attention to. It is my second weakest subject. My weakest subject is History just in case you are wondering.

There are lots of things to revise for Language Arts. For example the format for writing letters of complaint or letters of request. There are lots of skills to apply and you need to have a discerning mind to be able to spot out figures of speech in poetry or unseen prose, to understand poems or comprehension passages and to choose the important points in order to write a summary.

I think that the only thing I can do is practice, practice and practice. Remember what teachers used to say? “Practice makes perfect”.


Higher Chinese

Even though Higher Chinese is a language like Language Arts, it is not as hard as Language Arts. There is only I form of letter writing to memorise. There are no summaries, no poetry analysis and no prose analysis. However, there are a lot of comprehensions. There are four comprehensions in one exam paper! There is not so much to study as Language Arts. I just plan to look through some compositions that I have written in the past and memorise some good phrases to use in them.


Integrated Mathematics

Maths is my strongest subject and I never fail to get an A1 every term. It is also quite a confusing subject. One must be quick-witted in order to solve a problem. I feel that to be able to excel in Maths, practice is not so important. What is important is EXPOSURE. Exposure is critical. One must be exposed to different forms of questions. A question can be asked in many different ways trying to confuse you but the only way to conquer it is to be exposed to that kind of question before. Of course another important element is carefulness. If one is careless and writes to messily. He may end up mixing up numbers. For example mixing up 6, 9 and 0 due to untidy handwriting or writing the correct answer at the end of an equation but writing a different answer at the statement.


Lower Secondary Science

Science requires a lot of memorising work. Other than memorising the chemical elements symbols, there is the memorising of chemical equations and many other complicated formulas that I shall not mention or I would be writing o forever. I just have to start memorising.


Integrated Humanities

Integrated Humanities consists of two subjects Geography and History.


Geography

I am neither good nor bad at Geography just like my Higher Chinese. Geography is just like a simpler form of Science with memorising to do but quite considerably less. I just have to read through my textbook and I should be fine.


History

History is terrible. I can never get my facts right. The dates, the information, it is driving me crazy! I can never get the format of writing History essays right. I spend the bulk of my revision time on History and only pass History with a score of 11/20. Why is this happening to me? I study very hard for History and I just passed it. I really don’t know what to do for History probably revision and lots of memorising work to do.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Bolt's 100m and 200m World Record

Well I am sure everyone has heard about Bolt's 100m new world record of 9.58s and his 200m new world record of 19.19s in the Berlin Games. Ask me if he is my idol, my answer: NO. Surprised?

Usian Bolt is an exceptional talent. He can beat other runners by a full 10m. Everything about him is perfect except one thing. His pride. I do not like proud people. Just look at him before his race, doing all sorts of funny actions like checking his hair and shave. I mean come on! You are having a race and you check your shave? Also when he wins the race, he does his trademark pose with both his hands pointing to the sky. He should congraluate the other runners on having run a good race. You don't see the other runners doing all sorts of weird actions. They shake hands and congraluate each other.

Maybe he is too happy and wants to express his emotions which is also not wrong. However, how do you think the other runners should feel after losing to him by just a fraction of a second and there he goes around showing off just because he is the best and just because he is Usian Bolt.

To all the Bolt fans out there I beg you to forgive me. However, I must say that Bolt is too arrogant for his own good. One must be humble in order to excel. But at least there is something we should all learn from him. Usain is an extremely hardworking man who does not cease in reaching his goals.

Please give your views.

MBA - Who Am I?


March On
Don’t cry
Open up your eyes and know
There’s someone else out there that feels this way

I’m singing to you
Cause I know what you’ve been through and now
It’s not so long ago I felt the same

Like soldiers
March on
If we can make it through the night will see the sun
March on, march on

I remember summer nights alone
Fireflies the only thing we own
All we ever dreams of California
I remember winters were so cold
Hunger was the only thing we know
And rock n’ roll dreamin’ was what saved us

Like soldiers
March on
If we can make it through the night will see the sun
March on, march on

Till we see the sun
Till we see the sun

Through the good times,
Through the bad times
Through the long days
Through the hard nights
Keep on till we see the sun

Like soldiers
March on
If we can make it through the night will see the sun
March on, march on

Like soldiers
March on
If we can make it through the night will see the sun
March on, march on

Even when there’s no one there for you march on
Even when the days are long for you march on
Like soldiers
March on

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6byLYRF2Pf8 for the music video.

A brief introduction of myself.

I am Lim Zi Yang Sean, a 13-year old, who is currently studying in Hwa Chong Institution and is in the school’s track team.

I strongly believe in the school’s motto “自强不息” which when translated to English means perseverance. I take failures in my stride and believe in a Chinese saying “失败是成功之母” which basically means that one can never be successful if he has never experienced failures. Failures are what makes you stronger and determined to overcome all challenges to meet your goals you have set. Speaking of determination, I have a very strong determination and will always try my best to reach my goals.

I think all this information more or less sums up my personality.

Analysis of the song

Good Charlotte - March On

The first verse:

Don’t cry
Open up your eyes and know
There’s someone else out there that feels this way

The first paragraph basically means that if one has suffered setbacks, we must not cry and give up because there is bound to be other people in the world who are in a worse situation. The bottom line “Always look on the bright side of life.”

The second verse:

I’m singing to you
Cause I know what you’ve been through and now
It’s not so long ago I felt the same

The second paragraph means that the composer was singing to comfort someone as he had also been through the same thing and understands perfectly how it feels.

The third verse:

Like soldiers
March on
If we can make it through the night will see the sun
March on, march on

The third paragraph is the chorus. The composer uses a simile “like soldiers” and a symbol “soldiers”. Soldiers are a symbol of courage. It means that we should follow the examples of the brave soldiers and still stand bravely against all odds. “March on” means just push yourself forward even after suffering failure. “If we can make it through the night will see the sun” means that we will still live to see another day if we stand bravely against our problems. The composer uses repetition in “March on, march on” to emphasise that we should never give up.

The fourth verse:

I remember summer nights alone
Fireflies the only thing we own
All we ever dreams of California
I remember winters were so cold
Hunger was the only thing we know
And rock n’ roll dreamin’ was what saved us

The composer “remember summer nights alone” showing that he could never forget how lonely he was. He was so poor that “Fireflies the only thing we own”. He could “remember winters were so cold” and “Hunger was the only thing we know”. This shows that the composer can never forget the hardships as they were what inspired him to do better and never give up.

The fifth verse:

See the third verse.

The sixth verse:

Till we see the sun
Till we see the sun

The composer uses repetition “Till we see the sun Till we see the sun” to emphasise the importance of not giving up in the previous verse until we have achieved success in overcoming our difficulties in this paragraph


The seventh verse:

Through the good times,
Through the bad times
Through the long days
Through the hard nights
Keep on till we see the sun

When the composer uses the phrases “Through the good times, Through the bad times Through the long days Through the hard nights Keep on till we see the sun”, he means that life is full of ups and downs. However, we must never give up until we succeed.

The eighth verse:

See the third verse.

The ninth verse:

See the third verse.


The tenth verse:

Even when there’s no one there for you march on
Even when the days are long for you march on
Like soldiers
March on

The last verse concludes this whole beautiful and inspiring song. The composer addresses the problems we might face in life like loneliness and hardship with the phrases “Even when there’s no one there for you march on
Even when the days are long for you march on” He ends this song reminding us to be like soldiers and “March on”.

My own response

I feel that this song really suits me well as it has a lot in common with my own mentality and mindset. I know of many people who would give up easily after a few failures. Unlike them, I will keep on trying until I succeed. Sometimes, this is not really good as it may make me become very stubborn and not realising that my way is not always right. I feel that I need to learn more about finding the root of the problem and solve it instead of just insisting on using my own way.

Mother’s comments
I believe Sean knows himself well enough to be able to write the above. Though his strength is never to give up easily, his weakness is that he is often too stubborn to take other people’s advice. It is often very difficult to change his mindset and this sometimes hinders his progress in his studies.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Metaphor Poem

Watch it as it huffs and puffs,
Smoke billows from it

It is silvery,
And very scary

When it gets angry,
You had better be wary

Cos if you touch it,
You go “Ouch!”

Household item: Kettle