My Parents' comments on my reading habits.

My parents were happy to see me reading so many books. They were not very particular about me reading all those magical books and fantasy. "It will stimulate your imagination." they said, encouraging me to think out of the box and think of endless possibilities. They only told me to read more Chinese books. I then explained that this was an English bookshelf and that I had read Chinese books as well. They encourage me to keep up the good work and read more books. They recommended non-fiction which I don't really like to read.

Father's Memorable Read

The book that my father most remembers is "The Jungle is Neutral". My father had read the book when he was in secondary 2. The book was a book prize he won for acing his History examinations.

This story is a re-count by F. Spencer Chapman as the commander of British Force 136, a motley band of anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters made up of British military, Communist as well as Kuo-Min-Tang (KMT, the Chinese Nationalist Party) elements.

As Chapman traveled by bicycle, motorcycle, dugout, on foot, or on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruited sympathetic Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters.

Their mission was to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In some scenes, Chapman recalls their daring raids as they blew up bridges, cut communication lines, and affixed plastic explosives to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They threw grenades and disappeared into the jungle, their faces darkened with carbon, their sub-machine guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the moonlight. When Chapman wasn't battling the Japanese or escaping from their prisons, he found himself fighting the jungle's harsh conditions.

My father finds in it significant relevance to the formation and political development of Malaya, and subsequently Malaysia and Singapore. He also finds Chapman's narrative to be a delightful read, full of amusing anecdotes that do not subtract from it's seriousness of the situation. He particularly enjoys the part about Spencer's cheating death when captured by the Japanese. Unbeknown to Chapman, the British High Command has elevated his rank from Captain to Major so the Japanese was offering a reward for the head of a certain Major Chapman. The Captain Chapman was then able to crawl out of the captive tent into the darkness of the dense Malayan jungle to continue his exploits.

I decided that since it was such an interesting book, I would want to read it too.

Confessions of a book-lover

Book-lovers have their fair share of unjust comments such as bookworm, nerd and the like. However this is rather grossly unfair. Without book-lovers such as myself, there would not be much need for libraries and authors anymore.

However, I confess that perhaps I like books a little too much. I could not bear to see a book soiled and dirtied. I like to make myself oblivious to all else by reading a book. I drown myself in a story when I am feeling down. When I suddenly remember a particular scene in a book that made me laugh, feel happy or any other emotion, I would take the book right out of my bookshelf and read the particular portion.

As a book-lover, I would usually buy the books I have in mind or borrow them. I also like to collect books that are in a series like General Grevious collects his victim's lightsaber(that is a portion from Starwars). Whenever I look at my collection of books I feel so proud.

To all book-lovers out there in this world, do not be ashamed of your love of books. Be proud of it!

All-out fight.

Wow! When I used to learn martial arts, I did not know what uses it has. However, after hearing a story from my former schoolmate, I truly appreciate the martial art's value.

When I first heard of my friend's story, I could not believe my ears! My long-time friend, was actually a hero in his class. At first I thought he was faking it. But later as I listened, I believed it.

One of my friends classmate and friend had gotten into a fight with another classmate who was some kind of bully. He and the other classmates managed to pull the two boys away from each other.

Then after school the next day, the bully got 6 of his Sec 2 and Sec 3 friends to beat up my friend. They were actually armed and dangerous! My blood chilled when I heard that they were armed. However the bullies did not count on one thing: my friend's black belt in martial arts. He said he managed to hold them off and defeat them until the Discipline Master of the school came and ordered the boys to stop. While my friend only got a little cut on his arm, the bullies went home with black eyes and broken bones.

What a thrilling and yet true story.

Poor, Poor Me!

Poor, Poor Me! The past few months have been so dreadful. It felt like eternity to me. My problems all started when I was told for humming the national anthem by Miss Narwin, my homeroom teacher. Then, when I told my very supportive, maybe a little over supportive parents, they told me to stand up for my own rights. I did and continued to hum as I have always did.

In the end I was suspended for continuously "causing a disturbance". I was really angry at Miss Narwin and I told my father about it. My father then wanted me to talk to one of his friends, Ted Griffen. Mr Griffen knew a reporter from Manchester Records. He asked me to tell the reporter could report the incident of me being suspended for humming the national anthem. At that time, I was really very angry at Miss Narwin so I decided to lie that I was singing. Little did I know that this news would make it to the national newspaper.

Now that Miss Narwin has resigned, I actually feel sorry for causing her so much trouble until she had to resign. If only I did not hum in class and lie that I was singing, then Miss Narwin would still be teaching. Sorry Miss Narwin.

But still, I am off to Washington Academy with no track.Arrrgh!I can't live without it.Poor, Poor Me!

About my blog writing

For the past few months, I have been writing blogs, like I am now. This really helpful to my writing. My writing skills have really improved since I started writing blogs. My teacher says:"There is no good writing, only re-writing. The only way to improve is to write more." So here I am, writing more to improve my writing.

Now I am becoming more attached to this blog. Writing a post would make me more relaxed as I have to recall the exact details of the incident I am writing about. I also never post a blog once I am done with it. I would save it, then I would check through the blog repeatedly for mistakes. Finally, when I am quite sure there are no grammatical errors and all the facts are true, I would click "submit".

This is however, a little problematic, as I have to look over the blog. Nonetheless, I still like writing blogs as they allow me to express myself.

Other than writing blogs, I have started to read my other books to improve my English. I have an electronic bookshelf in weread.com and now I have a book that I am reading. It is entitled "The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood".

I encourage you readers to start blogging today.

Connection between a graphic novel and a narrative

There are many differences between a graphic novel and a narrative. But there are also some similarities. Today I had a great lesson trying to piece together parts of a graphic novel. We were split up into groups of about six, and then we were given pictures to arrange to "tell" a story. Although there was not a single word in those pictures, it told a very good story that all our group could understand.

On the other hand, we also studied a narrative titled "Nothing But The Truth". It was a very interesting story to read. It was all words and not a picture was included in the book. It was also well understood by our group.

Both of them tell a story. The story is told in a different away though. A graphic novel has many viewpoints. These viewpoints actually express the writer's own thoughts on the subject. A narrative, tells the story from many character's point of view; in this case the author does not convey his thoughts through the story.

These are stories. Stories that I shall enjoy, be it a graphic novel or a narrative.

P.S: My preferred learning styles are Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Linguistic in order.