Summary on blogs

I am nearing the end of Term 3 and the end of my English ACE. So to summarise my learning through blogs, I have learnt to post posts, edit them and delete them and add new pages. I have also learnt that blogs and websites are entirely different. Although websites are far more difficult to create and edit, they are far more conventional than blogs.

A big problem that I met while doing this blog was that I found out that I could not put multiple posts on each page. Multiple posts could only be posted on the home page, aka the main page of the blog. For other pages, the post can only be lengthen and there can only be one post on each page. To lengthen each page, the page must be edited so that more information can be added to the post on a particular page.

I think that Blogger is much better than Wordpress as it is easier to manage. However, there are two areas in which Wordpress is better than Blogger. First, images. In Blogger, the pictures cannot be placed in a specific space while in Wordpress they can. The next advantage, a particularly, big one, that Wordpress has over Blogger is that in Wordpress, words can be copied from elsewhere and pasted in the editing space, in Blogger everything has to be typed out manually. In Wordpress images can also be copied and pasted while in Blogger the images have to be saved as pictures and then inserted into the editing space which can be quite tedious. However, overall, Blogger is still much better than Wordpress or I would not be using it to blog right now, would I??

I also think that my English teacher's idea to use blogs as a platform for ACE is very good. This is because now is the media age and therefore most of us would be familiar with blogs. Using blogs is also very good as information can be kept neatly and we can present our blog in a very nice manner especially in Blogger because of its all-new WebDesigner which is absolutely brilliant.

Poetry

This post is, as the title states, about poetry. I have been learning about poetry recently and, it isn't as simple as it seems. Believe me. There are a lot of things that need to be considered when writing a good piece of poetry, not some kid language like:

I love u,
U love me,
We are one big family.

Try writing that for your poetry assignment, but don't say that I told you to do so.

There are many different kinds of poetry. There are the traditional poetries which actually rhyme. You can't find many poems written in 2010 which rhyme although many songs still do.

LIMERICKS

Then there are the limericks, which are basically funny, ridiculous poems. They are the type of poems I love the most. However, the tricky part to writing a limerick is that it usually consists of five lines and the whole poem is normal except for the last line. The first two lines and the last line usually rhyme while the third and fourth lines usually rhyme with each other as well. Here are two samples:

There was a young lady from Lop
Who drank a large bottle of pop
She drank it so quick,
Every sip, every lick
That she swallowed the bottle and pop

This one is exceedingly ridiculous and humorous, so, five-stars!!

There was a young man from Perth,
Who was born on the day of his birth.
He was married they say,
On his wife's wedding day
And died on his last day on earth.


Now I am going to try to write a limerick myself.
Here goes nothing!!

There was once a gangster named Dave,
Who was feared and hated all of his days,
Till one day he died,
And the people rejoiced,
And poured burning kerosene on his grave.

Not bad, if I say so myself...



In every poem, there are lines, which you probably know, and stanzas, which are like paragraphs in stories. There is also a tone in every poem and a pace.

I will elaborate more on pace since it is quite difficult to understand.

Read this tongue twister out loud:

She sells seashells on the seashore.
The shells she sells are seashells I'm sure.
But if she sells seashells on the seashore,
Then the shells she sells are seashore shells.

Then read this other tongue twister out loud too:

Peter Piper bought a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper did pick,
So if Peter Piper did pick a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pecks of pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?


Compare the two. You will definitely notice that the first tongue twister is slower than the first. This is because if you pronounce 'p', it is kind of quick, but if youu pronounce 's' the pronounciation will lag so it is impossible to make the first tongue twister seem faster than the second even if you read the first much faster than the second.

Manchester United vs Fulham

Manchester United's latest trip to the bogey grounds of Craven Cottage was considered lucky for them as they escaped another embarrassing defeat at the hands of Fulham. It was a let-down especially for manager Sir Alex Ferguson who promised nothing less than victory.

David Stockdale, the reserve goalkeeper for Fulham but lately has been taken notice because of outstanding performances, was again chosen over Mark Schwarzer who is still struggling with a back injury.

In the match, Manchester United snatched the lead after only 11 minutes when Paul Scholes scored his 150th goal for his club with a low drive from 27 metres. Davies then equalised for Fulham in the 57th minute after some teamwork involving Damien Duff and Bobby Zamora.

However, the main drama in the game was actually in the last 5 to 10 minutes. It started in the 84th minute with Fulham player Hangeland scored an own goal which gave Manchester United a lead which they did not capitalise on. It was shown when Duff conceded a handball and Nani's penalty was actually saved by Stockdale.

In stoppage time, Hangeland broke Manchester United hearts when he apologised for his earlier howler by scoring with an unstoppable header from a corner to end the game 2-2.

Manchester United are now third in the scoreboard behind Arsenal and Chelsea who are the leading the pack with 6 points. They continued their 8-0 thrashing of Wigan in the last game last season with a 6-0 crushing of West Bromwich Albion and another 6-0 dismantling of Wigan. Poor Wigan. Anyways Chelsea, Arsenal an Man Utd all have played 3 games for your information and both Arsenal and Man Utd have 4 points after Arsenal bounced back from a woeful 1-1 draw with Liverpool with a 6-0 destruction of Blackpool.

Man Utd vs Fulham

Manchester United's next game will be against Fulham at Craven Cottage, the same place where they lost twice in their last 2 trips including a humiliating 3-0 thrashing last season, so they will most probably be nursing a huge grudge against Fulham.

I think Manchester United's morale has been boosted a lot by the great news that the greatly sought after Nemanja Vidic is extending his stay at the Premier League giants. The purchase of Javier Hernandez is also a great move as he is very quick, in fact he was the quickest player in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He was also described by Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson as a natural goalscorer and by former Guadalajara team mate Jesus Padillas as 'amazing in the air' despite his height. He is 1.75m tall-considered quite short for footballers.

However, on the other hand, they are still missing star defender Rio Ferdinand, boisterous Anderson and Owen Hargreaves who saved them the blushes many a time as all 3 of them are injured. Rooney, who scored 34 goals last season, is in poor form and goal-less since March this year.

For Fulham, they have to do much much more than their last game, a disappointing 0-0 draw with the Bolton Wanderers. In that game, second-choice goalkeeper David Stockdale stood out, delivering a first-class performance so that Fulham could still get a point. In the match against the Red Devils, Stockdale may be called upon once again as the aging Mark Schwarzer is struggling with a back injury.

My prediction:

Fulham 0 Manchester United 2

Man United 3 Newcastle 0

Manchester United started their first Premier League match on the right foot on Tuesday, demolishing Newcastle 3-0 with Berbatov, Fletcher and Giggs scoring, all unlikely scorers, especially Berbatov which I have said in the earlier post, was severely, seriously off-form last season.

Berbatov broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute, a payment for being in the starting line-up with Rooney. Valencia stole the ball from a Newcastle defender in the Newcastle half and passed it to Scholes who released Berbatov with a fine through ball which the latter drilled past Newcastle goalkeeper Harper. If you saw the match, notice that the defender racing with Berbatov for the through ball. When Berbatov was about to score, he tried to block and ended up slided on the ground for like 5 metres. :D:D:D

The second goal was scored by Darren Fletcher. Evra fed Valencia on the left flank. Valencia whacked the ball across to Fletcher who was eagerly waiting who turned around and smashed the ball home.

The last goal was scored by Ryan Giggs who maintained his perfect record of scoring in every season for 21 years. Paul Scholes struck a super-accurate cross to Ryan Giggs who latched on to it and drilled it in precisely to the bottom left-corner of the net just beyond the keeper's reach.

MAN UNITED RAWKS!!

MAN UTD RAWKS!!

WOOHOO!! Man United kicked off to a great start in the new season, romping to a marvelous 3-1 victory over Chelsea in the contention for the Community Shield. Finally, the Reds were showing some teamwork. Last season, Wayne Rooney was the sole striker and the whole team seemed to consist of only 1 player. Once he slumped, the whole team slumped.

The match was extremely exciting and kept on see-sawing. After only eight minutes, Paul Scholes had the first opportunity for Man Utd from Valencia's right-wing cross, an an effort which blazed just over the crossbar. If the shot had went in, Chelsea would have been plenty embarrassed, man!! Too bad, but never mind. They were embarrassed anyway-3-1 loss, what a scoreline!! What's more for the team who bagged the F.A cup and the EPL last season.

Anyways, there were plenty of chances for each side. Nicholas Anelka's effort stung the hands of Van der Sar, Rooney could'nt tuck his shot in properly after being released by Scholes, and Ivanovic, trying to clear the ball with a diving header, nearly headed a Michael Owen cross into his own net,-what a joker!!

In the 41st minute the deadlock was finally broken by Valencia. Again, Scholes sent a 50 yard ball down the pitch for Rooney to chase and Rooney somehow managed to squeeze in a cross (cheekily) between john Terry's legs-shows how undeserving he is of the captain's armband after the sex scandal, even though that was quite long ago- for Valencia to smash into the goal.

However at the break Reds manager Fergie made some astonishing changes. He replaced Park Ji Sung with new signing Hernandez and Berbatov and Nani came on for Rooney and Owen. Surprising considering Berbatov's awful form last season and Nani just recovering from an injury. Anyway it yielded even more surprising results. Valencia, who gave Ashley Cole a torrid time and made him look like a tortoise, and I don;t mean in a good sense like the tortoise in Aesop's Fable, you know 'Slow and steady wins the race', yeah, chased O'Shea's flighted pass down the line and picked out Hernandez in the six-yard box. Hernandez was about to score when he tripped. The whole flew upwards while he fell forward, ball connected with head, and the former sailed into the net to make the score 2-0.

Chelsea grabbed a consolation when Van der Sar parried Sturridge's shot into Salomon Kalou's path. Kalou of course hammered the ball in.

However in the dying moments, the whole team worked together, passing to each other 17 times before Nani's flicked pass created space for Berbatov's sumptuous chip which ended the game 3-1 and broke Chelsea hearts, and no, I do NOT in the least feel sorry for them.

National Day celebration

The last time, I wrote about the National Day celebration in Hwa Chong. Now, I'm going to write about the National Day celebration in my CHURCH, Living Sanctuary Brethen Church. It is situated in Hougang Street 2.

Anyways, the celebration was from 4.30 to 8. However, I was late because my father was sleeping and woke up late, and therefore drove me there late as well. It was some sort of pot-luck. That means everyone has to bring something to eat. My mother bought some chicken wings. No, not some, actually huge quantities. She then cooked the frozen chicken and I brought it to church. There was some message in church about the church's history. The church shifted from Pasir Panjang to Hougang and became a much bigger church. The purpose of the church was to serve the residents in Hougang. Many people have come to accept Christ, meaning they become Christians, mostly from Hougang but also some from other parts of Singapore.

After the message was over, we headed downstairs. there were 2 giant visualizers showcasing the National Day Parade which was being held at the Padang for the first time in 5 years. Every cell had its own tables. We, the Secondary 1 boy's cell, was joined by the Primary 6 boys' cell. Everyone had brought something, so there was spagghetti, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, curry, satay, fried rice, otah and even char siew meat. Later on there was even ice-cream.

After had eaten our fill, my best buds Shaun, Jerald, Tom, Caleb and others (I can't remember it was 6 days ago, for goodness' sake) went to an empty space behind the playground and played dodgeball with a stress ball, you know thee soft small rubber one you squeeze when you're angry, yeah. And it wasn't ordinary dodgeball, thankyouverymuch. It was VERY CHALLENGING. Why? Because Jerald and Shaun stood at both ends of the space and threw the ball at us. And they were school softball players. However, it was very fun. We played until 8.10(at night) which was when the whole of Singapore sang the national anthem and recited the pledge together. We sprinted back to the place where we had dinner, which was actually a basketball court cum carpark. Then after we had said the pledge and sang the national anthem, everybody prayed silently for one minute for one minute. After that, I ran back to the space behind the carpark and there i played soccer with some Primary Sixes until about 9 and then I went back home with my parents and sister.

It was a VERY GOOD DAY.