Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a a annual celebration, whereby chinese relatives would gather and celebrate the start of a new chinese year. Married couples are required to give "hong bao" to the young children. "Hong bao" is a small red packet in which the adults put a sum of money, which can be any amount, into the red packet and give it to the kids.

Before the Chinese New Year, every chinese who celebrates chinese new year would have to clean up their house. They believed that cleaning up the house would eradicate the bad luck and also invite the new good luck to enter.

Each familiy member would have to get new clothes to dress up as well. Yearly, those who visit will have a feast of food. The differ from many varieties as well. However, one thing will never change about every Chinese New Year, and that is the eating of "yusheng". My grandma is an expert of making "yusheng", and she is able to create different ingredients to go along. Before i was born, she would make them and sell them off. A restaurant once offered a proposal, whereby she made the "yusheng" and deliver at a higher price. She declined, as the transport would be expensive, and are not covered. It is a raw fish salad,mixed with gravy to enhance the taste.

During Chinese New Year, i would spend time with my cousins at their house. We would play games, and have lots of fun. The down part, is that i don't get to keep the money from the red packets. Although i will get to have them at the age of 21. I had lots of fun. This is the favourite time of the year for me, and i will always enjoy these days and make it memorable!

My view on Chong Boon Seconday School rules.


Chong Boon is a neighborhood school that is filled with many lively students. However, every school would have to place school rules in their school to ensure stability and peace, lest there be any troubles.

Rules are there for us to follow. While other more rebellious students would take rules as "Rules are meant to be broken". However, i have to disagree with it. Rules are meant to control students.

What i feel about the school rules is that they are placed there to tell us that we should follow them. Without school rules, there would be mass chaos in the school. That is the main reason why there are rules in place. However, if one is to compare the school rules of the Europe and Asia, they are entirely different in a few ways.

One of them is that they are allowed to wear home clothes while schools in Singapore must wear uniforms when going to school. Wearing uniforms denotes which school are you in for easier identification. Secondly, all students in Singapore who are attending school must have a proper and neat hair, that is off natural born hair color. However, schools in Europe allows any kinds of hairstyle.

Therefore, my view on Chong Boon Secondary School rules are meant to be followed. This way, there would be peace in the school.

Singapore Flyer

On Friday, 29th of February, we went on a trip to the highest observation area in the world, the Singapore Flyer. It is the tallest ferris wheel, and at the peak, you are able to see the entire area of Singapore around the ferris wheel. It is forty-two stories high, and each capsule is able to hold at least thirty people. At the peak, we saw a spectacular three-hundred and sixty degree view of the entire area.

As we were traveling towards the Singapore Flyer, we had lots of fun in the bus cracking jokes on our friends. It is a blessing to study with such lively classmates. The trip was a smooth one, without any trouble at all. Perhaps we were able to control ourselves, there wasn't any trouble at all.

We arrive a little late at the Flyer. We waited patiently at the foyer. Most of us were excited, as this was probably the first time they ever went so high up. We waited in anticipation, some with fear, others with elation. Soon, the tickets came and we were ready to board the Flyer.

We walked towards the entrance and saw huge capsules that are air-conditioned rotating around the Flyer's axis. The Flyer moved non-stop, so we have to quickly move in case the capsule leaves without any of us. Rushing in, we felt the cool air around us and began to take in the environment. The walls were made of glass, and there were seats in the middle. Rasheed and Kenny had acrophobia, they sat down and did not dare to stand at all.

The whole journey lasted for thirty minutes. We were able to see a panoramic view of Singapore's Central Business Destrict, one of the busiest areas in Singapore. We saw many things, like the new floating stadium, and skyscrapers that nearly came on par with the full height of the Flyer. We took pictures and a group photo as well for the whole group of us.

At last, we began to move down. It seems that moving up is slower than moving down the capsule. We caught a last glimpse of the area, and left the capsule. It was an enriching experience for all of us as well.

After that, we had a short break and went on to the observatory. Here, we discussed about the projects in the Singapore Flyer. Our discussion was led by some of our teachers and we started to do in haste. We tried our best but could not complete the entire project in time. However, we did take a group photo of Integrity one as a memorial for the class.

For us, it was a very exciting trip. I hope that i will be able to go on the Flyer again!

New Technology- A Threat or a Promise?


Would you consider new technology something that will improve out daily lifestyle, or problems that you will handle in the future? Most people, who prefer to live in luxury, will embrace with open arms that new technology to improve their daily lives, but careful thinkers will ponder over the negative result before making a choice. Over thousands of years, humans have evolved from less intelligent species of animals. Intellectual ability of humans is always expanding. New ideas being to formulate and an invention is a success. Yes, technology improved our lifestyle, but has anyone bothered to dig inside to find out the negative effects of technology?
Technology is many things to us. Well-off people would say luxury, while middle class people would say a new way of life. I would say that it helps me cope with my studies and work more efficiently than before. Technology is an important necessity for many people. Practically everyone in the world is dependant on technology to improve their way of living. It has helped us to do numerous experiments that people thought was impossible, proven that some impossible are made possible, find cure in the midst of plague and many more miracles. Science produces countless numbers of miracles that has shaped the world as you would see. Without it, we cannot continue our daily live properly.
However, certain things have side effects. Technology has brought us really far. Along the trail, we have also brought destruction with us. We live in luxury, and certainly none of us are complacent. There are prices to pay when we use them. Air-conditioners, they use up a lot of electricity to produce cold air to suit our needs. Yet, we use them regularly, using up lots of electricity. Electricity requires burning of coal to be made. The Earth’s supply is running dry and prices are shooting up. Burning coal will emit carbon dioxide, which will be trapped within the atmosphere, thus heating up the Earth. Many people care more about their economy and wealth rather than the importance of the environment.
I would consider technology more of a threat than a promise. Yes, it may bring us luxury and peace, but it would not bring happiness to the Earth, and generations that will suffer the effects of the actions. We wouldn’t want our generation and future generations to suffer badly. Therefore, we should start to take action and forestall global warming!

First of all, Internet is something that nearly everyone in the world needs. It is a necessity to almost everyone in the world. information on the Net is so easily accessible that one can just type what one needs to search for, and information appears like rabbits. Internet was started by a place called CERN, who proposed the idea to create the World Wide Web. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. However, i agree that the Internet has certainly done more harm than good, but to a limited extent.

Nowadays, nearly everything requires the uses of computer, and most people in the world who owns a computer, has access to the Internet, regardless of the speed or the networking speed that they subscribe to. Sometimes, students in school is assigned a project on something which may be sound a little hard to them, but the Internet has lots of info on that subject. All they have to do is search it on Yahoo, and they get the answers rolling out like recipes for baking cookies.

For adults, practically everyone who works in an industrialized area has to sit behind a computer to do their work. Adults need to communicate with each other, which is where email comes in. Email is the big turn-around for the world since its creation. It is the fastest way to contact each other around the world. It is not dissimilar to writing a mail to your friend. The difference is that you need your friends email address and Internet access. Email accounts can be created easily anywhere on the Web. Hotmail, G-mail and Yahoo are a few common hosts who allows you to create your email for free of charge.

Even now, email is very outdated. Now, there is something called an Internet-Relay chat, whereby two people communicate with each other through a program. Windows Live Messenger allows people to chat with each other. The downside is, both parties must be online for them to chat. It is direct communication as well. What is safe, is that you won't have people you don't recognize to chat with you. Only those whom you know will chat with you, as only them has your email. However, there are some trouble-makers who cropped up problems around the world. Only recently, there were a group of hackers who disrupted the Internet, causing world-wide problems. Many companies and schools were affected by the hackers.

I still agree that the internet has done more harm than good. The Internet has both good and bad uses, and one should not discriminate it just because of a few uses, and one should not avoid it because of certain sites that disgust people. As long as you search at the correct area, you will find information that is relevant to your subject.

The End Of Year holidays has just ended a few weeks ago. It was pretty memorable to me. Sometimes i would just be stuck at home doing nothing while some other days i would spend my time with my friends at the arcade or just window shopping around a famous shopping centre. To me, holidays are just breaks from the tiring and tedious exams that stress and makes you have a real headache. Two more years, and i will be going to have my "O level" examinations, which would take place in the early October.

Sometimes, i would just stay in front of the computer all day long and play games. If i feel bored, i would visit the nearby Macdonalds to curb my weariness. Even playing for long hours would make one feel bored. As time passes, one will grow tired from something that they have done for a period of time.

However, every holiday i would have an enjoyable thing to do. Usually, every holiday, i would go out with my friends. We would hang out at the nearest shopping mall. But this time, we went to Vivocity to let ourselves lose. We decided to watch a movie. While waiting for the time to arrive, we went around and window shopped. However, some of my well-to-do friends bought a shirt or some random clothes at the nearby prices, which are to me, exorbitant prices.

Shortly after, we didn't realize that the movie was about to start. Vivocity is built in a very confusing way. We had a hard time trying to navigate around the area, but we managed to reach the cinema just in time. Once we were in, we sat down and the movie started at the right time where the advertisements ended.

Once we came out from the cinema, it was already 7pm. We really wanted a buffet, but Vivocity is very limited when it comes to food. However, we entered a haven for all chocolate lovers: "Chocolate Empire". It had every commonly found chocolate, and some even which is limited edition. We grabbed the candies off the shelf and paid. The amount, but since it was food, was pretty expensive for me.

Finally, when we reached back to Ang Mo Kio Station, we went to the arcade and monkey around the games there. It was crowded, but that did not deter our desire to press the buttons of the games available.

It was a really fun day for me. I wished that the holidays would last longer but good things have to end. Well, thats the end. Bye Journal!

my name is Rhynn. i am 14 old and i love potatochips. my mom keeps telling me to study hard this year but i just cant resist going into games. xD bold italic underlineRhyn CHan!! xD :)

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