A New Beginning

Today marks a new beginning for several things. Today is Wednesday, 24th April, a day memorable to me. I will be listing out the several issues that happened today.

Firstly, yesterday was my finals for the National Water Polo Championship 2010, C Division. Before we went down to play, I will be honest with you, I was feeling quite nervous, as it was my very first time playing at the Finals of the water polo competition. The match was against ACSI, a strong rival of my school. At the preliminaries, we lost to them 8-3, with ACSI then moving on the emerge victorious in the rest of their matches and proceeding to the finals. For us, because we lost, if we wanted a secure position in the finals, we had to win the rest of the matches. I became quite nervous as Raffles won ACS(Barker) by almost the same margin as we did. However, we did emerge victorious against Raffles and proceeded on to the finals, much to my relief and satisfaction. At the finals, I can say that I fought hard in the pool, and of course, with the help of my teammates, the score in the first half was 2-1 in favour of ACSI. However, we started to let in free men and counter breaks in the second half where ACSI increased the margin and finally the match ended with 10-4 in favour of ACSI. Although the margin is quite big, I feel that we have really tried our best to win this competition, but I have to admit that the other side was fitter in terms of stamina, enabling them to win us by such a huge margin in the second half. However, today marks a new beginning for my water polo life, being able to fight for the B Division gold next year, ending the drought for more than a decade!

Next, it is a new beginning for all of the students in Hwa Chong. This is the start of the new term, for everyone to start mugging for better results in the new term to pull up their results from term 1. In addition, it is also a new beginning for Hwa Chong as Founder's Day just passed and the celebration was today. I was helping out as a councillor and did not attend the CIP my class had to do. I helped out at the College auditorium where all the awardees collected their prizes. My brother was one of them, being an ARE winner. Watching them go up one by one, especially my brother, it really inspired me that I could be one of them, if I worked hard year after year. They really inspired me, especially my brother. Therefore, it's a new beginning for my school, having another year and more years to go by. It is also a new beginning for me, my journey to strive for excellence.

In fact, it is not just this day that marks a new beginning for everyone. Everyday is a new beginning for everyone. It just depends on how serious people treat their days. Everyday, there is a chance, a new hope that something good might happen. And what happened yesterday, whether good or bad, is now history and it is no point thinking about it. Therefore, the last message I would like to say to my friends are, no matter what happened yesterday, whether you lost a competition, whether you failed your exams, whether a tragedy occurred, life moves on. There will be better things ahead of you. There will be a better tomorrow.

Believe. Confidence. Success.

Before I begin my post, please take a look at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X6_KJeDioY&feature=PlayList&p=D58D5A9C6B3098E3&index=52

Are you intimidated by the gladiators shown in the video? If you are already intimidated, how about going up close with them and battling with them in various events? Will you immediately back out of the competition?

Well, to the competitors in the American Gladiators, they are willing to give all they have to fight with the gladiators and pull through the entire event just for the pride and prize. I am sure the prize money of $100,000 US dollars does tempt the competitors, but I feel that the pride to win and the true interest in overcoming various challenges and feats do make them want to win this and really fight their way through to win this. Many competitors have participated. Many have failed. Many have encountered many setbacks. Many have went through various challenges just for the gold. But only one will remain standing strong on the podium, only one will bring back the gold of $100,000 US dollars.

Who then, will eventually win the prize? I feel that this game is more of mental than physical. If you go head to head with the gladiators, the immediate feeling will be, "This guy is so big! How do you expect me to win him hands down?" I feel that it is natural for people to feel this way. In order to win this competition, I feel that mental strength is the most vital factor to win this competition. Without the basic mental strength, where will you get the boost to win this competition? Without the confidence, nothing will be possible. It is all in the mind, the mindset.

I was watching this show just now. Before every event, the gladiators will say some mean and intimidating words to shake you off your feet and lose even the little confidence you would have. I could see the fear in the competitors' eyes, especially one of them. However, before the event, he said some confidence-boosting words to himself and to the camera. I believe these words were really the vital ones and he finally managed to conquer all difficulties in the event and reached the final spot by the designated time, even overcoming the gladiator in the end. This is really a tough feat to overcome if not for his confidence level. This really motivated me a lot and showed me that with will comes great power.

In the show, what I remembered the deepest were two sentences before the grand finale of the competition by two separate contestants. They are, "Get back up! Do not give up without a fight!" and, "Half the size, twice the heart." These two sentences really motivated me greatly in showing me the confidence level the competitors had to finally overcome the various challenges. The first sentences is to explain that you have to be determined and should not give up if you haven't even tried, but feel contented only when you have given it your best. The second sentence is to show that although you might be on the disadvantage physically, you should have the great mental strength to face this competition. These two sentences were apparently said by two separate competitors in the grand finale. I believe that this mindset was what brought these two great competitors to the finale and fight for the gold.

Why did I want to write this post then? Is it just purely because of teaching people morals? No. This is because I would like to motivate myself and also to motivate others, especially my water polo teammates who are currently going through the nationals. No matter what you do, just know that you have to have the confidence. What I am trying to say to my teammates is, be confident, treat every game seriously, with the mindset that you can bring home the gold. But also, no matter what we get, just know you have done your best and be contented. Working hard in the future will definitely pay off. This is just the exposure and we are still learning. If you think you will lose even before the match, the match is a goner. Just do your best and work hard. Last but not least, nothing is impossible! So, to all my brothers out there with me in the war, work hard and we are fighting not as one individual, but as a team and we have to support each other through thick and thin, hopefully bringing home the gold in the end!

Multiple Intelligences Test

My multiple intelligences profile clearly shows that I am more inclined toward the interpersonal and math-logic intelligences. However, for my previous assignments, as I was not able to do on math-logic, next would then me linguistic. I feel that this is quite a good depiction of myself as I feel that it is true. Through this test, I learnt more about myself and I do recommend you to take this test as well. With this, I have an extremely vital task which I need you to help me with. It is none other than helping me to see if this test is an accurate depiction of me and whether I interpret them correctly! Now, I will be discussing about some of the intelligences.

Firstly, I have a very high math-logic and I could not agree with this more. I am not trying to be boastful, but I feel that my maths is my strongest subject and I have always gotten high grades for it, with a few exceptional and accidental slips due to a little complacency. I feel that math is a very enjoyable subject, where practice makes perfect. It is also true that once we know the formula, it helps to make everything so much simpler for us. This explains why my strongest point is in math-logic.

Next, I will be talking about interpersonal skills. So what is interpersonal? As the name suggests, it pertains to the relations between people. I feel that this is actually quite accurate. I am able to guess what people want. I am able to guess what people are thinking. I am able to guess what they are going to do. These are traits of a person with interpersonal skills. It best describes me as I am able to guess pretty well what other people really want. In several cases, I was able to guess what people are thinking and act according to the situation. I am able to understand people's emotions and see why they are feeling in this way. This has occurred to me several times. Thus, I would be glad to say that I am strong in interpersonal skills.

Lastly, I would like to post on my weakest intelligence, kinesthetic. Why then, some of you might be wondering, is my kinesthetic level so low but yet I am able to join water polo. I don't know about this sharing of mine but some of you might find it illogical. It just seems to me that in the swimming pool, I have a better stamina than on land. I am unable to do long-distance running. That is clearly evident in my NAPFA tests. However, by joining water polo, it has certainly aided me in improving my kinesthetic level, improving my 2.4km run timings. There is a reason why I joined water polo, in fact many reasons and this is only one of them. I hope that in the future, my kinesthetic will rise up and not be like this anymore. Hence, this is the reason why I have such a low kinesthetic level.

Ok, I will not continue to blow you away with my long sharing of my intelligences, lest you find me self-centred, making such a long post revolving around nobody but me! So, now I would like to place the attention onto you readers out there! What do you think about the multiple test, if you have done, and is it a reliable and verified source? Please drop a comment!

Last but not least, I would like to recommend this test to you. It is very accurate for me and I trust it will be for you as well. You just have to answer the questions truthfully and don't cheat yourself. I mean, what is the point of even cheating in this test? It is just purely ridiculous, unless some of you might be shy of showing low intelligences and want to 保持形象? I recommend you to take this test as it really shows you your strengths and weaknesses such that you can work on them and in the end, unleash your full potentials to the fullest!

Linguistic TKAM

Imagine you are one of the characters. Deliver a speech on what you think of the above question.

Is Maycomb a good place to live in?

Character chosen -- Tom Robinson

Are you asking me if Maycomb is a good place to live in? Well, the answer is pretty obvious, isn't it? If you are thinking that Maycomb is a good place to live in, there really must be something wrong with you! Maycomb, to some people, might be a peaceful and small town which is enjoyable, but to me, well, it is in fact a peaceful town, but certainly not enjoyable! In this state, it is impossible for the citizens to have equal rights! Just take a look at me, a perfect example, being accused of having raped a woman, Mayella Ewell, just because I am black, just because I am of a different skin colour which has been discriminated against all this while. We blacks have no right to speak. We have no right to justify ourselves. We have no right to decide our fate. Finally, we suffer and get discriminated by the whites. We are not even given the chance to fight for our rights against the whites, supposedly of a higher class. What we can do though, is to suffer and just hope for a better tomorrow, which will never come.

Look at my recent case regarding the raping of Mayella Ewell. I am a handicapped person. I have a withered arm. Do you think it is even possible that I am able to rape a able-bodied girl like Mayella? This is nothing but a big fat joke! However, the jury believed Mayella's account that I actually grabbed and slapped her at the same time! How ironical is this? No righteousness and justice was served. Just because I am a black, they gave me such a sentence, a sentence to death, even when I had not done anything and could not have raped a person. How could they have such discrimination against we blacks? Aren't we just like other whites? Aren't we human beings to them?

Despite all this, I must thank a person who gave me his full support, who stood up for me, who stood for what is morally right. This person is Atticus Finch. Although he is a white, he withstood pressure from others and stood up for me, fighting for me. This display of courage is so remarkable and I am really grateful for this. Skin colour was not what mattered most to him. What mattered most is what is right, what is just and what should be done. It really took him lots of courage to do this and I really know that he tried his best to protect my rights. However, what is this place? Maycomb. The prejudice against blacks still prevail and Atticus changes nothing for me. In the end, I am bound to be sentenced to death.

In Maycomb, courageous and morally upright people like Atticus are almost extinct. People just follow the norms and discriminate against the blacks, thinking we are the lower echelons of people. We the blacks can only wait, waiting for the day when justice will be done, waiting for the day when there is equality among everyone, no matter who you are, and finally waiting for a better tomorrow. However, when will this day come? 10 years? 100 years? A million years? I think it only comes when we leave Maycomb and seek for a better environment where there is democracy and equality. Thus, I would like to reiterate my point that Maycomb is definitely not a good place to live in.

Interpersonal TKAM

Conduct an interview with a friend (not from HCI) or family member. Find out from their point of view on prejudice and discrimination. Either record the interview or write out the interview transcript.

Me: To you, what is prejudice and discrimination?

Brother: Prejudice is the act of being biased against a particular someone, while discrimination is the act of insulting or pushing all the blame to a particular someone as a result of prejudice. These two occur globally. Despite all the education and advertisements for a harmonious city, there are still many cases of discrimination as a result of prejudice, especially in the field of racial discrimination. If you notice, many citizens of Singapore are still unable to live with other races. However, I would be glad to say that this type of discrimination and prejudice has definitely improved since many years back when all the blame are being pushed to a certain discriminated group just because that is the way of life.

Me: What do you think caused all this prejudice and discrimination?

Brother: I feel that all these arose from the fact that way back ago, the people of darker skin colours have been discriminated against all this while. Hence, there is no difference now or before. The present society, I believe, have been greatly influenced by their ancestors and are just following the norms, discriminating and be prejudiced against those of other skin tones. Like I said previously though, through education, the present kids are able to accept people of other races, not being discriminatory against them. If this continues to persist through our society, it will come to a fact that everyone is of equal status and no discrimination or signs of prejudice will continue to exist. Hence, a more peaceful and harmonious society will definitely be achieved.

Me: You mentioned that other races are being discriminated against. Which race do you think is being discriminated against most?

Brother: In my opinion, I feel that the Indians are being discriminated against most. This is not an insult, but if you were to go out with your friends, etc. you would definitely have one or two racist jokes. I feel that Indians have been discriminated against since a long time ago. People are now just following the "tradition" of discriminating Indians, without even knowing why. They just know that Indians are of a race which has been discriminated against and should continue to be.

Me: Could you please sum up what you have said?

Brother: To sum it all up, discrimination and prejudice are prevalent in today's society, though tremendously improved, but there is still a large room for improvement. People are normally influenced by their ancestors to continue the trend and to continue discriminating other races. However, with the education kids are receiving as of late, this problem can soon be solved and there will be a much peaceful and harmonious environment.

This interview was done with my brother on 1st March. In my opinion, I feel that discrimination and prejudice are indeed influenced by past ancestors. However, if kids were to think of it, it is rather stupid to discriminate people who are supposedly of the same status as us. We are all human beings. Skin colour is just another factor that differentiates us, but it should not affect our status in the society. I feel that kids should be able to understand this but they still do it anyway just for the thrill of it. However, they have never given a thought to how other people would think, the emotional hurt people are going through.

Hence, I would like to say that we should never treat people differently and we should all be of equal status no matter what race we are in. Discrimination and prejudice are only because of personal choice, and NOT because it is a fact that we MUST discriminate against certain groups of people.

Polo

Hi all once again. Today, although I have two tests on Friday and I have to study, I felt the need of voicing out.

So, I am here with a post on polo, no not the polo sweets, but my CCA Waterpolo. Recently, I have been having a few troubles with my game. Whenever we are doing ball handling, I cannot seem to pass or receive the ball well, passing the ball either too low, too high, too hard, or too light. All these really led to my poor performance. My coach always tells me, "Dexter, if you are unable to even pass properly, how are you going to play waterpolo?" He also said once before, "Dexter, your basics are gone. You really need to go and remember." These sentences really caused a great impact on me and have been ringing in my head all the time whenever I am playing waterpolo. Because of this incessant reminder of myself, I felt myself being extremely careful whenever I pass. However, this has caused me to be so careful that I sometimes lose the confidence of passing well and my mind just goes blank, not knowing where and how to pass properly. In the end, I sometimes pass the ball out or at the wrong position of my teammate. I have been rebuked several times because of my poor technique being displayed in the game, causing my team to lose the ball to the opposing team easily.

As a result of this, I have been really dejected, not knowing what got into me, why my play is worsening. When we did sprints on one day, because I felt really despondent, I sprinted before my captain even told us to. This caused him to be really irritated and I really am sorry about that. So, here I am apologising to my captain, Darren.

I have reflected and I could come up with two reasons. Firstly, it is because I have not been taking training seriously, which should not be the case because I made sure I trained hard whenever I went down to training. Another reason, which should be the accurate reason, is because of my council duties and projects. As a result of these, I have been skipping training quite often, thus causing my skills to deteriorate. But now, I have been going training diligently and train really hard to buck up because I do not have as much duties now. I really hope I will be able to do well in the National Competition.

I have written what I want to say and I thank you for looking at this post of mine, lending me a "watching eye" although I don't really know if you are. Now that I'm done with this post, I have to go for my late dinner!

P.S. Do you face any difficulties with your CCAs? How do you cope with them?

Double Happiness

Hi guys! It's been two weeks since my last post. The first day of the Lunar New Year is just over. Have you'll got many red packets? Have you'll visited your relatives and caught up on your relationships with them? Or have you'll been gambling in this festive season? No matter what you'll have been doing, I hope that all of you have had much fun, joy and laughter today as it was for me.

As I always have been doing in the past years, I visited my grandmother's house first, paying my respects to my grandfather and her. After that, I started visiting my uncles and aunts from my maternal side, before I reunited with my paternal's side of the family. I spent my entire afternoon at my grandmother's house, playing and catching up with my cousins. We had lots of fun together and I would say that time there was well spent since we managed to improve our relationship with each other. We played games like charades and even played mahjong. It was really an enjoyable time with them.

After dinner, they went over to one of my granduncle's house to visit him, while my family came home to have a bath and visit my neighbour's house since we have already visited that granduncle of mine. I enjoyed being in my neighbour's house although we became neighbours for merely two months as they treated as with much warmth, like we were not strangers at all. I enjoyed their company a lot. Then, I went home for my bath and waited in my living room for the next and last activity of the night -- my paternal's side of the family were watching a movie together.

To be honest, I was in fact growing a little bored waiting for their arrival to pick up my grandparents who were at my house. Perhaps I was not accustomed to the break in between a hectic and exciting day of having fun with my friends and relatives. Finally, my uncle arrived and we made our way to Bishan's Junction 8 where we watched our movie, "Little Big Soldier". It was not too bad a movie, being humorous and having a meaning at the same time, teaching us not to give up no matter how bad times were. It is really a meaningful movie and I recommend to all you readers reading this blog post. Do not miss it!

After all these activities for the day, it finally brings me to here, writing this long blog post. It is 12am in the morning of Monday now. You might be wondering why the title of this blog post is named "Double Happiness". The explanation to this will come up next.

My father celebrated his birthday last week on 6th February, a Saturday. My paternal family came to my house to have a reunion dinner in celebration of the coming Lunar New Year. At the same time, since it was my father's birthday, we celebrated it as well. We had a lot of fun last week, and a sumptuous dinner as well. This brings me to my point of "Double Happiness". This "Double Happiness" is not supposed to be referred to as my "Double Happiness", but instead, my father's "Double Happiness". Tomorrow, or today, 15th February is my father's birthday according to the Lunar Calendar. I have just wished him happy birthday. Since it is the New Year season and my father's birthday at the same time, wouldn't it mean "Double Happiness"? Tomorrow, my father will have double the joy, not only from visiting relatives' houses, but also because he is a birthday boy!

Hence, this blog post was meant to be dedicated to my father, to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and MAY HE ALWAYS BE STRONG AND HEALTHY! This wish of mine goes out to everyone reading this as well. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR AND I WISH YOU THE BEST OF HEALTH! I am really looking forward to tomorrow and I do hope that you enjoy your day tomorrow too! :)

P.S. Maybe you would like to share your New Year experience here? Was it an enjoyable one? Why or why not?