Fact and Fiction (Activity 3)

at the back of a class situated near the staircase, three elementary school students are listening attentively to their teacher's every word. despite seated at the back of the class, with the dustbin and brooms placed not far away from their seat, the students did not show any discomfort. the students are sharing a set of questionnaire questions and their obviously displayed confused facial expression explains their situation. wide, crystal clear eyes looks at the teacher, swallowing her every words and tries to understand the teacher's explanation. meanwhile, the teacher, in a blue baju kurung and white tudung, patiently explains to the students. with a pencil ready in one hand, and an eraser on the desk to rub off any mistake or wrong answers, one student is ready to answer the questionnaire.


around them, in other parts of the class, there are a few other teacher trainees wondering around, trying to help other students in the class who are facing any difficulties in answering the questionnaire. at one corner of the class, a male teacher is bent over a desk, helping a student who are obviously needed help. he then decided to squat down and continue his explanations. it seems like the student appreciate his actions as a warm smile crosses his wide face.

at the middle of the class, two students are competing with one another to finish the questionnaire first. the first boy, in a blue shirt, is determined but his friend are not going to give up. a handful of sweets promised by a teacher in front of them is too tempting a treat to be left unclaimed.

sitting quietly at the front row of the class is a girl wearing a blue baju kurung. she sits alone, and just shakes her head when a teacher asks if she needed help. but, as time goes by, she lifts her head and took admiring glaces to two male teachers who are discussing at the teacher's desk. one of the teacher caught her eye and smiled. lowering her head and slightly blushed, she returned the smile politely and lowered her head and examines the paper on her desk.

i am only me..

journal entry 7: imagine yourself a child prodigy who is not understood by people around you. you long for friendship and a normal life. write a poem describing your life.

i am only me

don't stare at me
don't judge me
don't expect much from me
because i am only me

i'm suffocating
under the scrutiny of the people around me
what is so special about me?
because i am only me

people always come and go
but none leave footsteps in my heart
i long for care and concern
from a friend which is a person

i am not a thing
i am a normal human being
don't run away and deserts me
because i am only me

the dreaded chain

the dreaded chain

Mountains of work
Piles of responsibility
But everyone has their own limits
And mine is finally here.

Let me be in peace
Let me finally rest
My sweet escape is right in front of my eyes
This gilded cage is chaining my leg
Oh let me free!

>from me to my boss

wish you were here!

wish you were here

Sandy golden beach
Bright hot sun
But that doesn’t bother us
As we are having fun

The vacation is almost over
We could sense the time is near
But heaven is right in front of us
How we wish you could be here
With us having fun!

from the family to me

one last wish...

One last wish

My dear child,
First I am sorry
For leaving you to carry this burden
Of curing solitude

It was fate that took me away
For my time has come
But please help our hero
To mend and accept the fact
With open arms

My only wish in flesh or ashes
Is for him to be happy
Not sorrowful or sad
Now that I’m gone
My wish is this
For you to help the king
To find his tune again

from grandmother to granddaughter

tune it up!

tune it up! for grandfather...

you lost your smile,
you lost your laugh,
you lost your soul,
when she died.

my old best friend,
i miss your love,
i miss your laughter,
i miss your jokes.

but most of all,
i miss out time together,
the untold secrets,
that only you and i know.

how i wish,
with all my heart and soul,
that you could be whole again,
finding new light
for the remaining years
and being able to find your tune,
even if it means
you are dancing to it
all on your own.

remember my dear,
your family is here,
i am here,
ever ready to help you
and guide you,
to take your first step
to be whole again...

mine

small, quiet, quaint,
green that promises peace and tranquility,
valuable things all over the place,
on the floor, under the bed, behind the desk,
but it is all that is precious to me,
my room, my heaven, my own.

stacks of books on one corner,
and boxes of shoes on the other,
piles of clothes on the floor,
and mountains of pillows on the bed,
it is signed "no entry",
exclusively preserved for my return,
my room, my heaven, my own.

the fasting month...

the fasting month, ramadhan, is a month of patience.
it tests our strength in many ways.
holding ourselves together, resisting the flow of saliva,
when we browse through rows of tents,
in the ramadhan bazaar...
this is not a place for the weak heart,
nasi ambang, ayam golek, kebab, nasi kerabu, che mek molek and many more...
"masyaallah, what should i buy?".. one would say.
the people of the bazaar would dance in rejoice...

another challenge will come as aidilfitri comes closer
lot 10, jusco, suria klcc, pusat pakaian hari-hari...
will be filled with people
who are there with a sole purpose
of buying new clothes for the festive celebration...
new jeans, baju kurung, jacket, songkok and skirts
money flows like the dashing water of ganges river
and fathers lines up at the atm machine
with tears brimming in their eyes...

my favourite fictional character

my favourite fictional character is sakuragi hanamichi in the anime and comic slam dunk. i started liking this character ever since i watched the anime series when i was still in school. his character is a short tempered high school bully. his image is enhanced with his incredible height and bright red hair. he have his group of friends who are delinquents as well. even though his character is at first rough and other characters are scared of him, but inside he is a passionate person. he has a huge crush on haruko, the sister of captain akagi, the high school basketball team captain.

he joined the basketball club by accident, that is after his natural talent was spotted when he challenged akagi to a match. since then, he joined the club, but with the sole intention to get haruko's attention. he always called himself as a tensai (genius). but in actuality, he is the dumbest character in the anime.

but, this character of his makes the anime funny and it is hilarious to watch his antics, especially his arguments with the team members. i never tire from watching this anime and never failed to laugh. but underneath the laughter, there is an important message that is being put forward. even though sakaragi is a laughable character, his determination to win a game and his passion for the game should not be left unnoticed.

activity one of writing fiction - building character

it's 2nd january and emily came home from a very tiring 7 day business trip. Jerry must be on call tonight, she thought to herself. it was not a good New Year for her as she missed celebrating Christmas with her husband and her family. she opened the door to her homey apartment, expecting her dog, Margerita to greet her at the door. but she encountered something that put tears in her eyes. in front of her, her living room was decorated with a christmas tree with lots of gifts stacked under and around it. she opened the gifts one by one. a gift from her parent, a silver locket with the inscription of her name "emily" was wrapped in a golden box. a brand new laptop from her husband, and with it a bottle of herbal medicine to ease the pain of her feet. opening the rest of the presents, she found a box from uncle tom. this year, she received a dusty old radio and fortune telling cards from her eccentric uncle, who adores her nevertheless. last year, he gave her a pair of leather jackets and an old rugby ball, the so called winning ball from the sox's win 2 years ago. she felt loved. she turned and walk to her office and put the gifts neatly in a glass cabinet. as she was placing her bag on her chair, she realised that the office is clean and organized, by her husband, with a jar of sharpened pencil on the desk, ready for her to start her work.

tin tin... you're my inspiration!

if i were to talk about the book that has inspired me to read, it is not a book. it's a comic, that is the adventures of tintin. my parents were forced to buy me the series because i liked it so much during my childhood days. my teacher first introduced this book in my english class and since then the whole class couldn't get enough of it...

it all started with 40 little children who loves to play around in class all day and never get their work done, that includes when the teacher herself is in the class. i guess english was not our favourite subject at that time. so, to capture our attention in class, one day, my teacher brought with her a lot of comic books. and of course the students are paying a little bit more attention as the teacher is holding a piece of art, and not educational material. she passed the book around and asked us to read. our interest in learning english starts from that point on.

the adventures of tintin is a series of comic books that portrays the adventures of a reporter named tintin with his dog, snowy and his friends. my most favourite adventure is tintin in tibet. unfortunately, my collection of books was thrown away by my uncle when he moved in to my grandmother's house.

because of tintin, i was attracted to read comics and then i progress to liking novels. ever since i found the joy of reading novels, i was never attracted to read malay novels, even until now. this might be because my teachers have always introduced english books in my class. since i enrolled in a mix-culture school and my circle of friends consists of mostly chinese and indians, i was not exposed to malay novels.

until today, i enjoyed reading and finding books that is not restricted to one genre. My favourite books to date are “Where the Heart Is” by Billie Letts and “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck. “East of Eden” is the only novel that I am REQUIRED to learn but ended up loving it. Books aside, my greatest joy is still reading comics! Every month, I waited for the sacred day, the 1st, 11th, and 21st of every month, where the comic “Kreko” is released. Some people might not get why I love reading “Kreko” so much, but hey, I myself don’t get people who read “Pedang Sitiawan”. Different people have their own preferences when it comes to their choise of books. People can say anything they want but still, laughter is the best medicine, even when people stare at you, thinking that you’ve hit cloud nine when you laugh by yourself.

Questions to ponder

1. What is the movie about?
The movie “High Fidelity” revolves around the life of Rob Gordon who had just been dumped by his girlfriend Laura. The movie started with the fighting scene of Rob and Laura that eventually leads to their break up. Because he is hurt, he started to list down his top 5 break ups that he has experienced since he is young. At first, Laura was not included in his list, but he eventually includes her as he finally admits to himself that he is hurt by their separation. Rob, who owns a record shop, tried to console his two employees/friends, Dick and Barry, but unfortunately, he didn’t feel better, but much worst. To ease his injured ego, he tried to recall his past loves and also tried to contact them to find out the reasons behind his previous breakups. It is also a way for him to find peace and as a mean to forget about Laura.
In his effort to revise his previous relationship, he realizes that unlike to his previous relationship, he wants Laura back. When he found out that Laura is staying at his neighbor’s house just above his roof, he erupts in anger and in a courting spree to get Laura to come back to him.
Laura father died while he was trying to get Laura back and he attended her father’s funeral. Here he realizes that he should let Laura decides who she wanted to be with because he realizes that her family didn’t like him so much and others, including his friend Liz, resents him for what he had done to Laura. But Laura changes her mind and wants to give their relationship another try. The climax of the story is when Rob proposes to Laura because he realizes that he could not live a single day without Laura, and not one women in this world could make him feel the same as what Laura had been able to make him feel.

2. How is the story different from other common fiction?
This story is different from any common fiction because the love story that the writer is trying to convey or portray is viewed from a different perspective and is played from a different character. Usually, the main character is always rich, handsome and charming. But Rob is a direct opposite. Furthermore, the central mode of conveying the message is not actually through dialogues among the actors but through Rob’s inner monologue. This is uncommon in most fiction.


3. Who is your favourite character and why?
I have two favourite characters and they are Dick and Barry. I like Dick because at the first half of the movie, he portrays the character of a gay. But as he met a girl at the record shop, it is finally clear that he is straight. His effort to be noticed by Rob is hilarious and his fight with Barry is even more hilarious. I like Barry because he is Jack Black, and Jack Black is always funny. The funniest moments that involve Barry is when he criticizes a customer for his choice of music and suggested for the customer to choose more heavy metal records. But at the end of the movie, he performed with his band and their music is so classic and evergreen.

4. Provide an alternate ending.
If I were to create an alternate ending for this movie, the movie would have a tragic ending. After Laura’s father’s funeral, she drove around the neighbourhood to look for Rob. But she never found him. This is because after Rob realizes that Laura deserves a better man than him, he jumps over the bridge and drowned. His body was found a month later, without his arms and legs because it was eaten by fishes. His eyes are gone and his mouth is distorted like a crooked smile.

writing.. problems anyone??

What thought came to your mind when you are asked to write something for your course, or just for fun? “Hah?? Write?? What should I write? And how should I write it?”
More often than not, these thoughts came to your mind, right? There are so many problems that you and I faced while we are trying to write, and believe me, we are not alone.

The problems start in the early process of writing. This happens when I, the writer, are not clear of what I’m suppose to write. When we received the instruction, “Write the problems that you faced while writing.” Sometimes, I’m not sure of what I’m suppose to write because maybe I’m not well informed of the topic or I do not have any prior knowledge of the topic. But based on the question that is give, my main problem is I do not have any sufficient ideas on what to write. One of the important aspects that we should strive to achieve in writing is attracting the reader’s attention and sparks their interest to read any piece of writing. So, with this huge burden in my head, I would spend long hours thinking and cracking my brain to create the best first line of my writing to attract the reader. Where as, those time that I’ve wasted could be filled with doing things much more meaningful, like feeding my turtles perhaps.

Another problem that I always faced in writing is finding the flow of writing. This happens when I have too little ideas or too many to cramped in a piece of writing. What always happened was I strayed from the main points and starts blabbing about this or points unrelated to the main idea. As an example, if I was originally writing about the implications of smoking to your health, with too little points, in the next few lines, I would probably starts talking about the benefits of eating spinach for your health. The main scope of ideas is still present, that revolves around health but the main focus of the writing is gone.

the new semester..

This time around, my new semester started earlier that most people. This is because I’m one of the facilitators in charged of handling the orientation week for the INTEC July 2008 new students intake. The orientation week was smooth sailing but it was really tiring. Even so, the experience is worth every drop of sweat, tears and blood. I seriously mean blood because I hurt myself once during the whole fiasco. And I also risk losing the ability to hear properly on my left ear. I bet no one have ever thought orientation week is this risky… ^_^

After the orientation week ends, we, the facilitators were treated to a weekend gateway to Cameron Highlands, all expanses paid!! We had soo much fun with the sight seeing, performances and the barbeque... Thx to all the PMs, Cikgu Hassan and the lecturers for organizing this trip for the exhausted PMs.

The following Monday, officially the class starts.

Another headache comes around because for this semester, we have to fulfil a 19 hour credit and a new additional co. MY GOD!!! LIFE COULDN’T GET ANY BETTER, RIGHT???

But I will stay true to one saying,

The going gets tough, and the tough gets going!!!