Recount

Write about a time when in wanting to make someone happy you were forced to make a sacrifice.

I gave up a movie which I really wanted to watch so that I could make my brother happy. It was during the school holidays, my Aunt had brought my brother, my cousins and I out to Orchard Cineleisure. We were all planning on catching a movie, my cousins had already decided to watch the movie "Contagion", which was PG13. I really wanted the "Glee 3D Concert Movie", but on the other hand my brother was really looking to watching "Cars 2". I could still remember my mum reminding me to take care of my younger brother. He kept asking me to buy tickets for "Cars 2", I was reluctant as I really yearned to watch "Glee 3D Concert Movie". I knew I had to make a decision, I could not bear to see my brother leaving the cinema without smiling ear to ear. So I queued up for to buy the tickets for "Cars 2", after I thought about it for a while, "Cars 2" seemed like quite a fun and enjoyable movie! As the movie started, I saw my brothers face light up with excitement, I knew I had no regrets choosing to watch "Cars 2" to make my brother happy. After the movie, when we reunited with my Aunt and my cousins, my brother kept talking about the hilarious parts of the movie. Although I could still feel my heart crave to watch "Glee 3D Concert", I definitely had no qualms about watching "Cars 2" with my brother.

Reflection on article in Newsweek

I have read the article "No Root Causes" and it basically talks about the riots in London. The article says the police there as failed. The Metropolitan Police, which covers London had recently lost its two senior officers due to phone-hacking scandals thus they have been demoralized. The citizens of London have complained that the police are slow to arrive and they are not willing to put in effort when they are managing riots. It also says that the police needs to be reminded to be 'beastly to scoundrels'. I feel that the police should still serve the country to its best even though they are facing so many challenges and there are so many riots that are happening. If police decide not to turn up to break up the riots, te situations would become even worse. This is because if it is observed by the rioters that there is no resistance they will do anything such as burglary and the London will become such an unsafe place to be. The article mentions that we need to balance the incentives for thugs so the risk of joining a riot outweighs the gain of peer status and looted DVDs. I totally agree with the statement. What drives these youngsters out there to join riots is the fact that they will be seen as 'cool' and a 'dare-devil', which many teens want. If we are able to tilt the balance of incentives, there might be a change in the situation. But it would an unquestionably difficult task.

Descriptive Prose

The walls were covered with cups filled with delicious-looking solids that would have created sparks on your tongue. The room had cozy corners that had reflective metal tables that were perfect for a couple to chit-chat. The modern stools were shaped the most extraordinary way, which were made of curves and swirls. It was the superb place to be on a hot sunny afternoon, with chilly air and freezing deserts that would cool your body inside out. The extensive line of tubs of frozen goodness behind the glass panels would make anyone drool the moment they saw it. Those tubs of vibrant toned flavours would compel any pair of indecisive eyes to dart from one to another. The smell of sweet creamy heaven wafted around the whole room with the peaceful blowing of air conditioning was the best combination of settings to relax in. The place of work was at the end of the tubs, all that had to be done was pressing down numbers and exchanging notes with customers. What an awesome place to be in.

Police Officers being accountable for their actions

The police are accountable for their actions the moment they harm someone, whether they are dead or not. The job of a police is to protect and if they do harm someone out of no reason, they are not to be called police. They should be responsible for their actions, for example if chose to abuse their tasers when someone seems like a threat. They should be punished as policemen and women are still humans and are to respect human rights. In this case of the police in England shooting a negro for no apparent reason, the police should undoubtedly be accountable for their actions and be punished. I think their punishment should be that these policemen should be not be allowed to carry out duties as a policemen and they should be jailed as well as stokes of the cane. This will teach them not to harm anyone for no valid reason.

Eye-for-an-eye injustice

If I were Ameneh Bahrami, I would have shown mercy to the attacker. I would have shown mercy to the attacker because showing mercy would have changed many people's point of view of revenge. As well as the fact that by blinding the attacker, it would not cure the damage done to myself. The person himself who threw the acid on the victim might also turn over a new leaf.

When I show mercy to the attacker, I am actually setting a great example for others to follow as well. This is because I am forgiving the attacker and this proves that we do not always have to have an eye-for-an-eye justice. This will change the world as by taking the first step of showing that revenge is not always the best solution, many others will follow too. Thus this would change many people's point of view as they will learn from my forgiveness and choose to forgive instead of having revenge.

I would have shown mercy to the attacker as there would be no cure to the damages I have received by blinding him. If I had chosen to have the person who threw acid on me to be blinded, it would not make a difference to my injuries. Thus there would be no purpose of blinding him as it will only result in the satisfaction of revenge.

Another reason why I would show mercy to the attacker is because it would encourage and inspire the attacker to turn over a new leaf. When I show mercy to him, he will feel very thankful that he will not have to go through the same fate as me. This will inspire him to change his ways and even might choose to give back to the society. If I had chosen to have him blinded then he would remain the same angry and sinful man, which might even result in him trying to harm others. Thus I will show mercy to the attacker as it will give him a chance to change.

Thus because showing mercy to him will change people's view, would not cure my injuries and allow the attacker to turn over a new leaf, I would choose to show him mercy.

Online lesson 12: Logic and Decision making

Answer to Question

The common theme among the scrolls is instruction, all the scrolls seem to instruct the reader of what to do and reason why they should. This theme of instruction relates to how each of the suitors choose the casket as the instructions tells the person why he is not fit to have Portia and what he shall do. Morocco chose the gold casket because he thought that what all men wanted was Portia which was based on looks. Thus the scroll says that many men choose their wives based on appearance and instructed him to go away due to the lack of wisdom. Arragon chose the the silver casket because he thought that only someone who feels he deserves it will have Portia. Thus the scroll calls him a fool for thinking that he deserves Portia and instructs him go away to find another wife as he pleases. Bassanio chose the lead casket as he felt that it was humble, believing that it would not give him anything good. Thus the scroll says he does not not judge by looks and instructs him to be happy with Portia, accept her and kiss her.

Narrative

I remember once when it was a difficult decision between going over to my friends house to play soccer or staying at home to finish up the pile of homework and assignments I had. It was one of the weekends, that I had a huge pile of homework and assignments that had to be done as soon as possible, it was extremely unlucky that my friend had invited my to go over to his house to play soccer and other games. I certainly did not know what to choose. The fact that I have not visited my friend in a really long time and I wanted to catch up with him made me want to go. As well as the temptation of the fun of playing soccer and other amusing games. On the other hand, the stress of the need to finish all that work over the weekend troubled me. I told myself that if I wanted to go to have fun in the day with my friends, I undoubtedly needed to burn the midnight oil so that I could ensure I finished every piece of work. My parents even strongly felt that I should stay at home to complete what was assigned. But my mind kept thinking of the wonderful time I would have if I had gone to my friends house. I weighed the options and finally decided that it was the best option to stay at home to finish up the assignments. I thought about it quite a bit before coming to this conclusion, I knew that if I had chose the option of enjoying myself first and suffering by staying up late later to finish the work, would result in being tired the next day and not being able to concentrate on the things that had to be done. Thus although it was difficult decision to make, I felt that it was the decision that would have benefited me the most.

Narrative sketch from two points of view

First point of view

It was a sunny afternoon, my brother and I as well as a few of my cousins went to play at the playground filled with sand beside my house. I could see the sunny rays of light shining through the umbrella like trees above. It was the perfect atmosphere, sunny day with sounds of laughter. We were playing the game called "crocodile". It was our utmost favourite game! I started the game as the "crocodile", I had to catch someone in the game without climbing up on any part of the playground. I had to spin round and round before we started the game, it was the most amusing part! As I spun I felt so dizzy and fell on to the sand. I started bursting out laughing as well as my brother and cousins. I tried the steady myself as I stood on my feet. As soon as I regained balance, I ran toward the platforms and stretched out my hand to try to catch someone! Screams were heard as all five of them squeezed at a corner on the playground. Suddenly I ran underneath the platform to try to catch someone on the other side. Quick noisy steps were heard as all of them tried to avoid me. I reached out my hand and managed to grab hold of my youngest cousin, Jane. She shrieked and glared at me with her unhappy face. Then she got down from the platform of the playground and spun around to start the new round. The excitement never seemed to end as we played full of joy till sunset.

Second point of view

I was finishing up my math homework when I felt it was rather dim. So I walked over to the window to raise my window shades. I then saw a group of six young children at the playground just outside my house. They looked all so cheerful and carefree. I still remember the times when I invited my friends over and we played games at that exact same playground. I saw a small boy in pyjamas like clothing spinning round and round and finally falling into the sand. All his other little friends were laughing and giggling at his silliness. I could not stop myself from smiling to myself as I missed all those childish memories of the past. They seemed to be playing a game of "crocodile". At last, the boy managed to catch hold of a little girl and she did not seem to be very happy about it. It seemed to be her turn to be the "crocodile". I used to play that game too as well as "blind mice". All my memories of my childhood started flooding back and I let out a sigh. I wish I could go back and relive those days of my childhood. I continued to watch the carefree little kids with huge smiles on their faces as they had the time of their lives, losing my focus of finishing up my piece of math homework.

Reflections

I feel that this is definitely a really good exercise as I could learn to write in different points of view but the same situation. This will really be handy when we write stories in which there different characters and we are writing from their point of view. I honestly loved this exercise as what I actually wrote is something close to my heart. The two different points of view are as a matter of fact the two different feelings I had in my life, one as a small kid and one as a teen right now. I used to play at this playground outside my house with my neighbours as well as my cousins all the time. It was a regular habit that we built up when I was still a little kid. We always played games like "crocodile", "blind mice" and "monkey in the middle". Now that I have grown older and grew busier and busier, I had very little time to visit the playground. Even my neighbours have also stopped going there. Right now as a teen, I find myself losing concentration of work and travelling back in time whenever I look out of the window and hear sounds of laughter as another group of young children play their silly childish games. I really wish I could just put time on rewind. Sometimes I even go to the playground to soak up the memories and think about the amazingly fun times we had.

I extremely enjoyed this blog prompt as it not only benefitted me by practicing two points of view in a story, I too reviewed and realised how time went by so quickly. I really want to treasure every moment I have left of my teenage years before I become an adult!