Book Introduction: Clockwork Angel

Name: Clockwork Angel
Author: Classandra Clare
Published Date: 31/8/2010

So...I've read this book called Clockwork Angel recently. It is about a girl named Tessa, who is supposed to be an Eidolon, a demon that is able to change perfectly into anyone as long as she or he has touched an item belonging to the person. As Tessa travels to London to find her brother Nate, she is captured by two warlocks called the Dark Sisters, and then rescued by a Shadowhunter named Will. Shadowhunters are humans created by an angel named Raziel a long time ago. They are able to enhance their abilities with Marks, and keep the order of the Downworld-the world where vampires, lycanthropes, warlocks and other non-human beings live, and also keep humans safe from demons. As the Shadowhunters investigate into a case involving a shadowy character named 'The Magister', a greater plot is unveiled to annihilate all the Shadowhunters in London. In the meantime, Tessa starts to get closer to the two Shadowhunters, Will whose feelings is hidden behind a cold iron attidute, and Jem who is gentle and kind to everyone but has a dark secret.

The plot of the book is very exciting as there is always an unexpected twist when things are about to finish. The book also uses descriptive language well. This book is the first of the Infernal Devices trilogy and the second book, Clockwork Prince is estimated to be released this December. The trilogy is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments series, in which the fourth book City of the Fallen Angels was released recently in April. This book definitely has the power to keep you going on to continue the series, which I guess will eventually lead most book-lovers to the Mortal Instruments Series.

A Peek On My Daily Life...

On weekdays, I wake up at around 6, and I prepare to go to school. Everyday of school is filled with 20% of boredom, 15% of laughing, 35% of work and 30% of talking. When afternoon classes finish, I would walk back tired, and even a snail could pace me.

Upon reaching my room, I throw my bag down, sit down heavily on my bed with a 'plomp' and start Facebooking. Sometimes a pop-up from my chat would ask me what was today's homework and often I would not remember much. Most of the time I would turn my head to ask my classmate and roommate on the other side of the room on today's homework, and he would think together with me the occasionally heavy workload we were assigned.

Around the night I would start panicking on the work to be handed up the next day, and when it was near the end of the term I would be busy finding feasible titles to post on my blog. After 9.30 I could relax for a while and talk to my other fellow scholars, before going back to my sweet dreams.

On weekends, things would always be different for me. I would wake up late around 10am, and walk around my cluster wondering about things. Occasionally I would have projects to do and these filled up some of my weekends, but most were spent surfing the net, thinking about possible ways to get more ACE and OP, and also visits from my parents. Every weekend was bland yet exciting, bland as almost each weekend had the similar routine; exciting because each programme or action would often end up different in a way or another.

This is my daily life. If someone asked me if it was boring, certainly I would answer yes. But, I still feel that my life is fine because there is always that occasional excitement there for me to discover.

My Feature Article

Here is my feature article on prejudice:

THE MALAY AUTHORITIAN

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In Malaysia, the Malays are getting special benefits due to the law and policy. But do they really need it?
A gang of Malay students was reported bullying a Chinese student yesterday night in Kedah. They threatened him to give up all his belongings and valuables, and they even beat him up badly.
The victim, Tan Ah Seng, 14, said that what he had met with was “far more better” than what his juniors met. According to his oral account, there was this “welcoming ceremony” for Secondary 1 pupils who just got into the victim’s school. Random boys would be picked out by some Malay seniors, and they would take off their clothing and laugh at the poor students. The worst part was that some of the seniors were girls.

“Luckily on the day I entered school I was sick,” the student said, “else I could be also one of the victims involved.”

There were more crimes that the Malay gang in school had done, including theft and bullying, the gang also smoked openly in school compounds and some of them were rumoured to have indecent relations. When asked why were they nor dealt with by the school, Ah Seng only shook his head and said, “There is no use. The school does not believe what we say because they think we are jealous of the rights they get. I believe that the school knows about all these incidents, but they choose to ignore its existence.”

Ah Seng also said that many of the Indian and Chinese students wished they could have transferred to a better school, but they were all bound by a certain limitation or another. He also said that most of the students here could not get into the best universities in Malaysia due to the race quota put on the admissions of universities. He also said that that is the main reason why most non-Malay talents would go overseas to further their studies and not stay at home.

Looking into the society, the whole functioning of the society also contains a fatal flaw. All government organisations have prejudicial views and treat different races differently. In the police station, Malays get a higher priority and the police treat them more seriously. More jobs in government organisations are saved for Malays. However, the most important problem is back to the education system, where most of the subjects are taught in Malay. Although the government is introducing teaching Science and Maths through English, it has little effect on the students, who are unable to adapt to universities overseas.

It is true that some Malays do see this existing problem in the government’s policy, but the rest of the Malay community are extremists who think they should have their existing power.

The route taken by the Malaysian government is dangerous, as proved in the 2008 elections, when the Barisan Nasional only managed to grab 53% of the total election seats throughout Malaysia. Despite the effort done by the government to grab back more votes, the future voters are getting more and more determined to change the government. Looking back at the history of Malaysia, the first person who actually made Malaysia the country it is now was Parameswara, who founded Melaka. Since he was an Indian, shouldn’t policies instead focus on Indians?

I apologize for the lack of columns.

Tests Again...

Indeed for me it is true that most of the test have already gone. But, what is left would be the two(or is it three?) very important tests that would affect my Term 3 grades: LA Semester Test and IH Semester Test(I'm not sure if there is CF Semester Test).

While all of us feel like relaxing our tensed brains, we cannot afford to do so in case we were not prepared for the tests upcoming. It is true that there is the sabbatical week for us to enjoy learning other things, but we would still need to revise for LA and IH.

However, I believe that even though we are tired and beaten(some demoralized by the results), we can continue our effort to study harder and also achieve good results for our test. To my dear classmates from 2I2, let's continue on together! =D

Singapore General Elections 2011

It is widely agreed that Singapore is experiencing one of the most important elections in her history. The GE2011 has successfully attracted many to follow it closely.

Many people have stayed up since yesterday night to 4am today just to hear for themselves the results of one of the most important elections in Singapore history. Despite the announcer, Yam Ah Mee who successfully hypnotized some tired people to sleep, most managed to persevere and get the results personally. As expected, the PAP once again won with more than 60% of the election seats, but there was something different altogether.

The Aljunied GRC, where the Foreign Minister George Yeo led PAP's group to face against the Worker's Party led by Low Thia Kang, lost. WP had managed to gain 54.71% of the votes in Aljunied, leaving PAP with 45.29% of the votes. This had meant that Singapore had lost one of its valuable ministers.

The battle of Aljunied GRC was not centered on PAP against WP, it was instead centered on the people's voice in the government against a talented minister. The hottest topic in the elections were about the results that would come out in Aljunied GRC: would the people rather lose a valuable minister for their voice in the parliament? Or would they remain silent to retain talented ministers? The people have chosen. And this is their choice.

This election has clearly showed the PAP who have governed Singapore for 52 years straight since 1959: The people are more aware of politics, and they can no longer afford to ignore the people's voice. Singapore if advancing into a new political era, where the people, instead of the country, is the focus of the country.

Feature Article: TKAM

Here is my article on Tom Robinson's failed attempt to escape Maycomb Prison:

Guilty Tom Shot to Death

By Beh Guan Hong

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Maycomb: Recently charged with rape, Tom Robinson the nigger who was found guilty tried to escape during a prison exercise. The alert guards warned Tom of his actions, and made the quick and right decision to shoot him before he escaped.

According to a prison guard's statement, Robinson was running along well with the other prisoners during the exercise. It was not until the group neared the fence that Robinson broke away and tried to escape.

The prison guards were initially shocked but quickly recovered, they called the escaping nigger to come down, and when their words went into dead ears, they made the immediate and right decision to shoot the nigger down.

"Ho,that was great fun man. That nigger didn't fall from the first few shots, but he ain't God and he fell down like the piece of junk he was. Been a long good time since the guards had a shootin' practice." The prison guard said.

Robinson who was recently convicted guilty of raping a girl was scheduled for an appeal. When his lawyer Finch was asked on how he felt about Robinson's death, he said," Oh, Tom had such a good chance of winning the appeal. I think he got tired of our so called chances and decided to take a risk on his own."

This has been many years since a prisoner has dared to try the boundaries of the Maycomb Prison. No other prisoner shall dare to escape again for a while, least they end up treated like the nigger Robinson.

Tests Coming Up!

After this week, there's going to be many tests to study for... IH and LA tests in the coming week; Math and Science test following up in Week 7. Also I have to start worrying for my ACE, as I don't want my ACE to have a pitiful result like last term! I feel that the coming few weeks are going to be worrying for me...