The Giver: Blog Post #1

In Lois Lowry's novel, Jonas and his family live in the "perfect society", it could be described as a Utopian Society: , life is safe, orderly, and predictable. Rules are strictly adhered to; every aspect of a person's life is carefully planned. People rarely make choices on their own; everything is decided for them by the community.

Would you want your future to be decided by others ? Why or Why not?

I would definitely not want my future to be decided by others! I say that because I think that I should be able to chose the future that I want for myself, since I know myself the best. Since the future is what will happen next in your life, I wouldn't want someone to pick what they think my future should be. In my opinion, I think that you know yourself better than what others know about you. I think that because if you don't tell anyone how you feel inside, they wouldn't know. People can see the outside of you, which is what you do, and your actions. They can't see what you are feeling or thinking inside. You are the only one who knows what you want best.
I think that someone choosing my future is like getting capped, like in the story, The White Mountains. I wouldn't want someone to pick my future for me because the future happens to me, and not them.

One important thing that happens in the future, is the job. It is good to be able to choose a job that you know you can enjoy or you think that you are going to be good at. I wouldn't say that the who would be choosing knows us really well, so they might make a mistake. Like in the book, they made a mistake. The community selected someone to be the new receiver she failed in doing so. It caused the whole community to have a great discomfort. The payment of someone failing their job can be very harsh in that community. They can be released, or be sent to Elsewhere.
I think that you should get to pick your own future because like in the community Jonas lives in, people do observe you very carefully before they assign you a job, but they could still be wrong. You wouldn't want to ruin your future, since we only have one live. I would want to live happily ever after. I also don't want people to pick my future for me because if they choose the wrong future for me, I would have to pay for it and go with it, not them. I would also have to go along with it without a choice while they just have to say sorry, even if it was they're fault.

Although I would want to pick my future by myself, it would be nice to have your future decided for you by other people. Although I am a person who like making decisions of my own, having someone to pick for me might make life easier for me. You wouldn't have to worry getting a job since someone would assign you one and the job would be good for you. You wouldn't also wouldn't have to worry about getting fired. But then again, picking your future by yourself would be better because it would be your responsibility, and if you mess up your future, you can't blame anyone but yourself.


The Giver:
http://www.google.com.my/imglanding?q=the%20giver&imgurl=http://www.personal.psu.edu/alw5097/blogs/alyssas_lled_402_blog_-_childrens_literature/The%2520Giver.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.personal.psu.edu/alw5097/blogs/alyssas_lled_402_blog_-_childrens_literature/2009/02/entry-3-the-giver---fantasy-novel.html&usg=__yZCyQXdV86tuRzn3BV4iv4LdM7U=&h=700&w=412&sz=92&hl=en&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Op_uqZr891y4lM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bgiver%26start%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4SKPB_enMY341MY343%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1&start=17&um=1&rlz=1T4SKPB_enMY341MY343&ndsp=18&tbs=isch:1#tbnid=aQurbyy64f0OIM&start=34

~ThE eNd Is HeRe~

4. Finally, chose one of the 3 main characters and write how this character has changed during the course of the novel.

Will, when he lived in his own village in England, he wasn't really brave. He was more of a weak type. After he met Ozymandias, he told him about the White Mountains, and when he was about to go, Henry wanted to go as well, so Will let him. As they kept on going, Will's bravery kept on changing. He was getting braver and braver. Mostly when he met Beanpole, he was getting used to having to hide from the Tripods, and not to be scared.

Henry used to be so mean to Will. Whenever he saw Will, he would just go to him, make an excuse, and bulling him. But Henry's mind, is somewhat similar to Will's. They do not like the idea of Capping, and having to serve for the Tripods, which means that no imagination of their own, and makes it like a Tripod's brain rather then their own. At the beginning of their story, Will falls, and sprains his ankle. Henry helps him, and takes him to a place for him to stay. That's one reason how he gets kinder to Will. Well later in the book, he communicates with Will pretty good, and doesn't fight. So Henry turned from a bully to a nice, non- bullying kid.

Beanpole didn't really change at all, because he was really smart, and he still is. But I think that there is one thing he changed. I think that before Henry and Will even met him, he was an inventor, as in that he likes to create materials he needs. I could tell, because he made his own glasses. But after he left his homeplace and started the jouney, he stoped inventing stuff since he is too busy to create stuff. He stop creating stuff, but since he still wants to learn more about the button that he removed off under Will's arm, so he didn't really change after all. Even though he stopped creating new material, he still has his unique inventing skills.

In the beginning of the book, I didn't like the book at all. The book seemed really boring, since I didn't get any of the meaning of it (I was confused). When I got in the middle of the book, it got more interesting because more details were added into it. After they met Beanpole it got really good because that's when the actual journey starts. By the end of the book, I really liked it because the information was really clear.

In addition, all three of the main characters have changed since the beginning of their journey towards the white mountains.

Picture:
The White Mountains Book: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~aah...er.shtml

!The Gift Of Freedom!

"The bitter thing was all the spirit, all the gallantry, was wasted. For even more than inferiors, they accepted and looked forward to being Capped. It was a part of becoming a knight, or of turning from a girl to lady. Thinking of this, I saw how good things could be meaningless in isolation. What value did courage have, without a free and challenging mind to direct it?" (p. 111)

In Chapter 6, The Castle with the Red Tower, the major theme of freedom is explored.

In Chapter 6, The Castle with the Red Tower, it relates to the theme freedom because this chapter is when Henry and Beanpole leaves the castle, and tries to find freedom at The White Mountains. Freedom is important in life, and without freedom, we would have no rights to think what we want, and we would be controlled by the Tripods and do what they want us to do. I think this passage relates to the theme because it represents how people who are not capped and people who are capped have different points of view. In this passage, it shows how people who are capped don’t have a mind of their own and have been controlled by the Tripods. People who are not capped can think for themselves and not let anyone tell them what to do. It relates to the theme freedom that Will, Henry, and Beanpole have. This shows how people who are capped have no freedom than the people who are not capped yet. Eloise didn’t really have a choice, but she would have made the right decision if she was not capped. Will is free, but he has to decide if he want to stay in the castle to become king or go far away from the castle to go the White Mountain and be free. In this chapter, Will stays at the red tower, and he has a choice to stay in the red tower and be capped, or to catch up with Henry and Beanpole to continue his mission to The White Mountains. Will makes the best choice to continue his journey, and Will finds it difficult to understand why Eloise and others in the castle look forward to being capped. They are happy to be controlled by the Tripods as they do not see the difference between a person who has freedom and people who are capped, being controlled by the Tripods.

PS: Freedom is the best you can ever have. While you have it now, take the chance. Without freedom is like this... It's like a butterfly flying free (that's freedom), then a human catching it forever (not freedom). Like i said, we all have freedom now, so take the chance! REMEMBER!!!!We HAVE freedom, USE the freedom!!!!!

PICTURE:

Freedom Sign: http://vanish-debt.com/

Butterfly: http://affirmativethinking.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/freedom1.jpg

Choir HomeWork- Power Of The Void

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides (silence) an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I feel that adding the silence after provides creates the best tension because I put a silence before they give the information about the school. So if I put it there, people will wonder, "ISKL provides what?". It makes people wonder what the person is going to say, and what ISKL provides.

One way composers can create tension in their music, is by putting sudden stop to their music, which sudden stop is void. By putting void in the music, it makes the listeners think if the music's over, and later, the music starts again. If the composer starts playing the piece loud, then suddenly a void, it creates tension.

During the Christmas Holiday...

During the Christmas holiday, after we came back from vacation about a week later, I went to a sleepover at Shion's house. I was there if Bo Young and Shion. It was awesome. We did many random stuff. We danced to music, sang, get on the computer, play tricks on people that are on skype, swim, and eat dinner. Well, that's not the real order.

We first went swimming, because we didn't want the weather to go bad later. We dove into the pool, and just hang out in the pool.

We ate dinner at Shion's house. The food was delicious. We ate Japanese Curry. I love Japanese Curry! That's my favorite Japanese food.

After dinner, we got on the computer, and opened Skype. Diksha kept on calling us, but we didn't answer it because Shion didn't have the microphone connected. So we started playing tricks on her. I thought that the trick won't work because she's been through a lot of tricks during her life time.

Later we danced and sang to many music! It was so fun and really random. We took videos of it as well. When it was10:30, Shion's mom came in the room, and told to quiet down, so we just stopped. (sadly)

At last, we finally went to bed...

SnapShot: Private Beach

During the Christmas break, I went to Penang. It was a really long drive to Penang. I brought my comfy pillow with me, so I fell asleep fast. About an hour or so later, I woke up, and I got really, really, bored, so I took out my DS, and started playing it. After a while passed, my family and I were searching for a restaurant to eat for lunch. Since we wouldn't find the restaurant we wanted, which was a seafood restaurant, my dad turned on the navigation, and set up the navigation to the destination. Finally we got there, and when we got there, I was starving! I looked in the menu, and choose something that had a picture, and the one that looked nice. After we ate, we got back into the car, and my dad drove us to the hotel.

My dad set up the navigation to the hotel, but it keeps on loosing its signal, so sometimes we would go the wrong way. That happened twice. We got to the hotel, eventually, and my mom thought shes been to this hotel before, but shes never heard of the name, "Copthorne" before. So she thought she was wrong. When we got into our room, my mom was even more familiar with the hotel. Since it was late that night, I told my mom, "Lets ask tomorrow if this place used to be "Novotel" or not." I emphasized on the word "Novotel", because that was the hotel my mom went to, about 14 years ago. I went to sleep pretty late because I've slept for around 2 hours in the car. Later on, I got really sleepy, and I sleep fast again.

We got up around 7:30- 8:00 to have breakfast. After we ate beakfast, I reminded my mom to ask them if this hotel used to be Novotel, or not. After my mom asked them, my mom was in a shock! It was Novotel, but they just changed the name to Copthorne! Later in the evening, I was getting kind of bored, so I started to play my DS, again. But sadly, my DS was at low battery! I begged my parents to go to the private beach, and they said YES! I was very happy.

After I got changed and all, my mom, my dad, and I went down to the beach! When we got there, the first thing I did was to take my sandals off. Then my towel, and the next thing I did was...running! I was running toward the ocean, then, "Ouch!" I said! I stepped on a sea shell that was wide open.It hurt a lot when I stepped on it, but later, it got better. I was relaxing in the ocean, and enjoying my time there. We got up in our room, and went for diner.

We got back, and relaxed until it was time for my bed time!

A Reflection On The Life Of 03/08/98

A skill I have learnt is to keep my locker organized. About a month ago, I looked inside my locker, and saw that it was VERY messy. I started out with taking loose papers that I no longer need, and put them in the rubbish. Then, I stacked the books up nice and neat. Later, I organized the papers that were hanging out of the binders.

I had lots of challenges these past five months, and some I still work on them. Challenges are good, and so I'll always have a challenge! This one challenge I had, which I still will probably have to use it again sometimes, is to remember the song lyrics for choir. I've succeeded before, and I hope I'll keep that up! I have another one as well. This challenge is hard, but I try my best. I try to get good grades, which for me, good grades are B and up. I'm trying my best not to get anything below that, but sometimes, it just doesn't happen. Sigh. But I'm not giving my hopes up! This challenge has always been a challenge for me, and I'm not going to leave it out. Not to forget, I had a challenge in the beginning of the year, to remember my schedule. One day I blanked out my schedule, during the beginning of the year, so I'd have to dig into my locker and find my schedule. I thought i didn't bring it at first, but lucky me, it was inside my folder!


A skill that I want to learn is to write better stories, use the right spelling, and to use proper grammar. I would like to learn this skill because I sometimes don't use the correct spelling. I want to right better stories because I don't use proper grammar. I want to learn proper grammar to write better stories.

I contributed positively towards 6th grade community by kindness. Just a while after school started, a new girl came. She tried opening her locker many times. I saw her trying and trying, but she couldn't open it. I asked her if I could help her, and with a few turns on the lock, and I opened it.

The 2 goals I've set up for the New Year is to be organized and get B's or higher for my grades. To be organized, I have to clean my locker regularly, and throw away any paper that is not need into the recycling bin.For me to get B's or higher in my grade, I'll have to pay more attention in class, review them at home, study harder before on test, and to make sure all my work is complete.

Diving Down Deep

In America, I went to my pool with five of my friends. We were swimming for an hour, and then one of my friends suggested diving off the high diving board. I thought, since all my friends can dive off the high diving board into the 15 feet water, then I could too. I was so scared but since all of my friends convinced me, I said ok. My heart was thumping really, really, fast. I said to myself, I can do this! When my friends and I got in line, one of my friends was up. I told my friends I couldn’t go. My friends asked my why. I said that I didn’t have enough courage to dive off the diving board. I felt very sad. I thought about it many times, so finally, I told them that I would dive off the diving board. All my friends said at the same time, “Are you sure you can do it? You don’t have to dive off the high board if you don’t want to!” I said I was very sure. I can’t believe I said that! I told myself. I got in line. The line was very, very long. I was like the 56th person so something close to that number. One by one, as I got closer, I felt very nervous. So instead of staying in the line, I got out of it. My friends were already in the pool and I joined them. They asked me if I did it and I said sadly, “I can’t do it! I’m too scared to dive off the diving board, into the 15 feet deep water.” So my friends challenged me to dive off the lower diving board. I told them that it was easy! I got in line and waited. My turn was up. All of my friends were looking at me. It’s not easy at all! I thought it would be very easy. But since I told my friends it was easy as pie, then I guess I’ll try then. I got on the board, bounced up and down twice at the edge, and then SPLASH, I hit the water. I did it. I knew I could do it because they could do it. Now it was time to challenge myself to go off the high diving board. I told them I was going off the high board and my friends stopped me. They said that they’ve never dove down from there before. Then I thought again. They have been lying to me the whole day! They told me that they ALWAYS dive from the higher one! But I made my choice. I have to go. I thought. My friends said they were coming too. Now my friends were fighting about who was diving first. Everyone wanted to go off now. One of my friends said, “Marisa, you can go off first! But, I bet you’re scared because you didn’t really want to dive off at the lower one. You're such a chicken!” I got mad! I had to dive off first. So I finally said, “Fine, I’ll dive off first!” , and so I did. I hopped at the edge twice as usual, and I took off diving. I felt myself getting closer, and closer to the water. Then BAM! I slashed into the water. My friends were very impressed! Then that friend that called me a chicken said, “I am so sorry that I called you a chicken. Next time, I should think before I speak!” Then my friends and I kept on diving on and off. Afterwards, we swam in the pool and enjoyed our day. That day was a blast, and I will never, ever, forget that day!