Intrapersonal Assignment - Diary of Atticus Finch

Date: 31/12/39

What a dreadful, dreadful year. First, I had to deal with a case I knew that I could never win. Tom Robinson, a Negro, a hardworking, honest man, was accused of raping a defenseless young girl whose father was an alcoholic. I knew that by taking the case, I was going down in terms of public approval. My children at school were also ostracised because their father was a "nigger-lover"
This county by the name of Maycomb, does, like all the southern cities, have a thing against the Negroes. I do not quite see why that is. They are hardworking, polite, don't usually commit crimes. The only reason, is that their ancestors were slaves. A ridiculous reason! it does not really matter who their great-great-great-great-grandparents were, its who they are now! Anyway back to the case, I knew Tom was innocent, but I also knew that the jury would never rule in favour of a Negro. I did not care, I did my best. But obviously it was a gone case. There was still an appeal, though. Unfortunately, Tom did not trust the appeal and tried to run, with the result of seventeen bullets placed through him, making no less dead than a doornail.

Though I also received a projectile after the trial, though it was less than a bullet. Bob Ewell, angry that I humiliated him at the trial, spat at me, in the face. He just had to chew tobacco. He, not being content with spitting in my face, had to attack my children. Fortunately, my weird and anti-social neighbour Boo Radley saved my children. And Bob Ewell was killed, by his own knife, and Jem was around. I insisted to Heck Tate that we have an inquiry on this.He refused point-blank and said that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife while trying to kill Jem and Scout and there will be no investigation. Period. Well, I certainly do hope that this is going to be a better year.

Bless be to us all.

Linguistic assignment

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"


Tom Robinson Guilty
Thomas Robinson, 25, has been convicted of raping Miss Mayella Violet Ewell, 19. Once placed in jail for 30 days for disorderly conduct, the father of three children is now going to be imprisoned for life. He intends to appeal against his sentence. The trial had lasted 12 noon to 11pm, the longest trial Maycomb has ever seen.

The crime took place on 21 November 1932, when Mayella Ewell asked Robinson to come into the Ewell's house. Mayella had asked Robinson to help her chop up a chiffarobe. Then, when he was inside, Robinson grabbed Mayella and started to beat her up violently and shouted obscenities at her. Her ordeal only ended when her father, Robert Ewell came through the window and shouted at Robinson, who then fled. Mr. Ewell quickly ran for Mr Heck Tate, the sheriff to report the incident.

Mayella, whose right eye was bruised and had injuries on the arm and around the neck, was also hurt emotionally and had burst into tears when she was questioned by Atticus Finch, the defence for Robinson. Mayella testified that Tom Robinson had come into her house several times before the crime to help her with chores, but this time he assualted her when her back was turned.

The prosecutor, Mr Gilmer, questioned Tom Robinson why he would help Mayella Ewell with her chores for free. Tom Robinson gave the most possibly shocking answer. "I felt sorry for her." Tom Robinson's side of the story was that he had gone in to the house to help Mayella to chop up a chiffarobe, but was hugged and kissed by Mayella on the cheek. He tried to resist her advances but Mr. Ewell had shouted a vulgarity at him through the window and he ran away. When asked the reason for escaping, he simply answered to Mr Finch "Mr Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you'd be scared, too."

Despite Mr Finch's claim that there was 'not one iota of medical evidence' to prove that Tom Robinson was guilty, the jury pronounced Tom Robinson guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment in Enfield Prison Farm.

My learning style

I am number and linguistically smart. About being number smart, it was not quite a surprise, I always like Mathematics, though sometimes it really frustrates me when things get so tedious that careless mistakes come up. Though being linguistically smart came as a surprise, I thought I was interpersonal, though that also is a strong point of mine.

The test was relatively straightforward, I could see how the questions relate to that particular learning style. Was it helpful to me? Well, it certainly does show me where my weaknesses are, and my strengths. Does that help? Possibly, so that I know where I can improve on. But knowing my strength may allow me to take a break from that area, but may also result in me doing poorly the moment I slacken.

Bless be to us all.

End of the Chinese New Year

In our terms, the Chinese New Year celebrations are over once the holiday for it is over. So it supposedly ended in three days, and after that we have our examinations and the all too common piles of homework. Then during Chinese New Year, the time where we were supposed to relax, was not entirely relaxing. This combination of stress seems to have made us lose sight of what Chinese New Year really is.

Let us remind ourselves that Chinese New Year is 15 days, and the last day is quite something to celebrate, with all your family. For me, on that day, well, my father's car ran out of gas. Well, that certainly puts a dampener on the day right? On the contrary. It was my first experience of a car breakdown. My father took a taxi to the nearest petrol station to get some petrol and by the time he returned, the thing that you put some distance away from the car to show that your car has broken down, was knocked down but fortunately, I am not quite dead yet, nor am I in a hospital. I realised that if you wanted to buy petrol in a can, you have to show your IC, as they are afraid, I think, that you might use the petrol to set something blaze. The next thing I realised that the petrol one buys at the station, is actually pink in clolour. This is to distinguish it from water, as it is colourless by nature, so that you do not pour this over the fire in an attempt to extinguish it. So after the car breakdown incident, we went for a nice end of new year lunch and that is the end of the Chinese New Year.

Bless be to us all.

CCA

Today, during assembly, Dr. Hon was giving us a talk about the allocation of funds for the various CCAs, while also speaking about how to write in a way that will not unintentionally offend anyone. Back to point, about the allocation of CCA funds, he said that some CCA needs more money to function. He also stated that the school does not favour any one CCA over another. Therefore the funds are allocated based on the needs of the CCA.

While I agree with all of what he said, I have heard from my library senior that there is a "cap" on how many members can join the CCA at one time. I understand that this is put in place as a CCA can only have that many students at one time. However, in my CCA, library, I believe that we are more than capable and willing to accept more members. Our cap is at 5 students. Last year, our Sec 4 seniors left and leaving a really large gap in manpower. The reason to that is that because there were 18 of them.
Last year, we managed to function efficiently and serve all the students who were at the library to either borrow books, study in peace or just relax.

However, this year our resources are being stretched thin. Occasionally, on normal duty days, there may not be enough librarians on duty to man the counter. This is due to the need to tidy up shelves on the second floor as books are frequently placed on the wrong shelves or even on the tables, expecting us to clear up after them.

There are supposedly two ways around to alleviate this problem. One, raise the cap. Secondly, we could try to educate the students to return the books to the correct shelves. However, we have tried, with little success. So the apparent solution is to raise the cap.

Bless be to all of us.

CNY celebration

Chinese New Year celebrations are over already. Time really does pass so fast when you are enjoying yourself. Now, let me recount what I did after the celebrations in school.

Firstly, I went back to my primary school where I met up with friends and teachers from the past. It was so nice, just like the "good old days". Though there is something. We are slowly going apart. It is only to expected. We all have a new life now, more things to share with others, but less in common. Well, we have to get on with life. So the meeting went on to 4pm where we parted.

Then on Saturday, I dedicated the entire day to finishing my homework so I could go to Malaysia without the nagging worry that I have not finished my homework. It was finished in a blink of an eye, though that does not mean teachers should pile us with homework. At night I packed my luggage for the next day's trip.

Oh I hate traveling! It was a long, boring road to the hotel. But as my father says, the journey is more important than the destination. So I appreciated the scenery of trees and greenery nonetheless. Then all of my cousins, after a visit to my grandmother's, came over to the hotel. It was really big, 1500 square feet! So my cousins were invited for a sleepover. While my male cousins were playing Xbox games with me, my female cousins were learning art from my mother.

All good things have to end, obviously. On Tuesday afternoon, we packed up and came home and reached Singapore at 8pm. It decided that it had been a good time and I would cherish my memories of it.

Bless be to all of us.

New Life of Three and a half weeks

Chinese New Year is around the corner.... and we have exams already! It is almost unbelievable. Though I think starting school late by about one week has something to do with it. So soon are the exams that I am having my Maths test in two days! Thank god that we are going to have the CNY break. Of course the bad news is that we are likely going to spend a fair portion of it on revision for all the other subjects.

However, that is no reason not to indulge and immerse oneself into the festive atmosphere of the celebrations. I shall be going up to Malaysia over the long break and visiting all my cousins. It has been a while since I last saw them.

Well, other than having exams and homework that threaten to crash down on my head, I think I am beginning to adjust to this new life. CCA is good, juniors are coming in anytime soon, which will mean that we, the seniors will have less work to do. We will let them integrate into our club, then we boss them around a little ..... that is until next year, where they will repeating the same thing. Ah, what a vicious cycle of hate, continuing until the end of time.

Bless be to all of us.