Beaten

A young cheetah, Speed, walked with its head hung low, towards its enclosure in the zoo.

Exhausted after its race, it lay on the floor.

“What's wrong?" asked Dash.

"With this blistering hot weather in Jamica and my disappointing loss, I'm feeling lousy," Speed replied.

"Whom did you lose to?"

"Usain Bolt, who else?”

55 Words

Parents' Review on my Electronic Bookshelf

Well one thing quite obvious is that you have read the whole Harry Potter series. It is not bad to read Harry Potter, but it would be better if you could read more varieties of books.

Other than the books you read during you Language Arts class in school, you have heeded my advice and have gone to you school's library to read books. I am pleasantly surprised to know that you have been reading the "TIME" magazine in your school. It is a very good magazine. It keeps you up to date with the current affairs around the world. Another magazine which I think you have forgotten to add to your electronic bookshelf is "Readers' Digest". I know that you have been reading it.

Now that you are young, you may want to indulge yourself in lots of fiction and fantasy because as you grow older, you will find that you will have less time to read books.

It seems to me that you electronic bookshelf have quite a small number of books as compared to your Language Arts teacher. It is really a world of a difference. I want you to aspire to be like your teacher and read widely and deeply. Happy reading my son!



Check out my electronic bookshelf at: http://weread.com/profile/Sean/845E661B-BB16-40D0-9A85-ACE693290BD0?con_sandbox=booksiread&container_type=booksiread

Mother's Memorable Read ( Part of the Book )

Well actually this whole book is really good, but I will just read my mother's favourite part.

"Happiness begins with wisdom and understanding others. So if you you're really interested in being a happier person, then you must make up your mind to become a wiser person. It's the only way"

As I have mentioned, in my previous blog post, this book is meant to be read in 30 days. So at the end of every chapter, there is a quote of the day. One quote was written by Oprah Wrinfey.

Follow your instincts. That is where true wisdom manifests itself.-Oprah Winfrey

If anyone is interested in this book, please feel free to approach me.

Mother's Memorable Read

When I asked my mother which book had impacted her most, she took a long time to find the book. Simply because she had read many books. There were countless books that had made an impact in her life. There were books that inspired her, books that motivated her, books that lifted her up when she was down. After much thought and deliberation, and many hours of flipping through her private collection of books, she finally found the book that made the greatest impact on her.

The book was titled "Happines is... a way of mind, a way of life". It was written by A.R. Bernard. There was this phrase in the book that really stuck in my mother's head. "Money can't buy happiness, but happiness may buy money." As stated by the book, we, humans are quick to equate money with happiness, no matter how many times we hear otherwise.

Is money the most important thing in the world? NO! Happiness is the most important thing in the world. This book actually has 30 chapters. My mother was supposed to read a chapter a day for one whole month. After reading a chapter, she was to spend a few minutes to reflect and think of the things that she had read.

The aim of this book is to transform you from an average person to one who lives life to the fullest and enjoys life. In short, this book will make you a happier person. My mother definitely changed. She went from an easily irritated woman to one who was more understanding. Being less irritated, she was definitely a happier woman.

My mother felt that this was the book that impacted her the most as not many books can actually change a person within 30 days. However, she told me that in her mini library of books there were other books that also made an impact on her. I am really interested to find out more about them. As for this book that made the most impact on my mother, my mother says, "Read It".

Track and Field Nationals 2009 (Results)

My 200m race was on Monday. Let me tell you more about my race.

The atmosphere at Choa Chu Kang stadium was tense everyone was nervous. ( I have included a picture though I am not in it. ) I received my shirt tag. the number was "499". Just 1 hour before my race, I received news from my coach that I was running in lane 1. Bad News! As you know in a 200m race, a runner runs a route compromised of a curved and straight route. As lane 1 was the most inner lane, it no doubt had the steepest curve, making it the hardest to run of all lanes. If only I was in another lane, I am sure I would have been able to get a faster timing.

You must be really dying to find out my results right? I ran my 200m race in 28.08 seconds. A new personal best. I managed to shave off 0.82 seconds from my previous personal best timing of 28.9 seconds. That is quite a big improvement. Unfortunately I did not make it to the semi-finals. Just for your information, the difference between every runners' timing was 0.01 seconds. Just imagine that!

Let me narrate to you how I felt while running. When I started off, I was full of energy, leaping from the starting blocks. I easily managed the steep curve and thundered down the straight route. I have never felt so good before with the wind blowing against you face. There was actually no wind, but I was travelling so fast that I could hear the air roar in my ears as I sprinted towards the finishing line. I felt like the boy named, Zebra. Zebra is a character in a story I recently read during Language Arts class. Like me, Zebra loves running. Back to my race. Many of my track friends came to support me. According to them, they were cheering and shouting their lungs out. However, I did not hear them. I think I was travelling too fast to hear them. Remember I told you the wind was roaring in my ear? Anyway I would like to thank them for all their support from the bottom of my heart.

Next Thursday is the track and field grand finals. I really hope that we will once again as for the past 18 years be crowned the champions. It really means a lot to us to continue this legacy and not let all our seniors' sweat and tears go to vain. Good luck to all our Trackers!

Track and Field Nationals 2009

The annual track and field nationals is just round the corner. I am so nervous. I am representing the school in the C-boys 200m sprint.

In case you do not know, A-boys are the JC1s and JC2s, B-boys are the Sec3s and Sec4s and of course as you would have guessed C-boys are the Sec1s and Sec2s.

My event is on the first day of this whole almost two-week long competition. It is on Monday, 13 March. I feel kind of unprepared as I have not been training for the past one week as I was quite ill. I was more than happy to go back to training yesterday. With only two trainings left to prepare myself, I really hope that I will do well. My school's track and field team has been clinching the top place for 18 years in a row already. This year will be our 19th. I am confident that this year we will emerge champions again.

I heard that on the 23rd (Finals) all the Sec1s will go and cheer for our school. I am really looking forward to that day. We will all feel so proud when we stand and sing the school song as our school's track and field captain lifts the championship trophy. Just like how our seniors did for the past 18 years.

Sean, you will do well as usual so don't worry too much.

Confessions of a Runner

>200m

I always feel nervous before I sprint a distance of more than 200m. It makes my stomach go feeling all weird. It is a phobia I have after I ran a 300m distance earlier this year.

It was one of the worst experience I ever had. Halfway through my 300m race, I could not feel my legs and my hands. My whole body was numb and my body felt like a machine than just kept accerlating. There was no feeling at all. No pain. No exhaustion. Nothing...

However, after crossing the finishing line, when my leg muscles were not so worked up anymore, the pain then set in. It was a pain so terrible that my fellow trackers and I could only stumble on the floor and gasp for breath. It was a living hell.

Ever since, I have always feared races above 200m be it during training or competitions. Even when I run a 200m I still feel a little nervous though not so bad. I guess I will just have to train more. Hopefully, this phobia will soon go away.