Essay #7

Is creativity needed more than other in the world?

Life is like a white canvas. One should paint the canvas with various colors to produce a wonderful painting. The colors symbolize creativity. In order to accomplish the goals of life, creativity is an essential recipe, as shown by Steve Jobs and Mehmet II.

As the founder of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs applied his creativity in advancing the technology of smartphone. A few years back, phones were only used to make a call or to text someone, which are the rudimentary things in our life. However, as an innovative person, Steve Jobs came out with an idea of a phone with many features, which we call now as smartphone. His initiative to develop the technology benefited him very much. His first product, iPhone, made a ground-breaking profit when about 1 million units were sold in just a day. And now, Apple Inc, his own company, is one of the most lucrative company in the world. Steve Jobs' creativity resulted his business to achieve the acme. Through the idea of smartphone, Apple Inc is now well-known throughout the world.

Unlike Steve Jobs, Mehmet II applied his creativity in his conquest of Constantinople. Being stymied by the large chain across the Golden Horn, Mehmet II and his troops decided to cross it by their own way. Mehmet II had shown his creativity by giving the idea to bring their ships across the empty land and hills in order to enter the Constantinople River. This idea seemed ridiculous, but they eventually vanquished to arrive at the river at the perfect time. Lastly, Mehmet II and his troops conquered the Constantinople, known before as the country with the strongest defense. Instead of using the traditional method to cross the sea, Mehmet II was creative that him and the troops brought their ships across the land. His creativity resulted him to vanquish his goal to conquer the Constantinople.

To conclude, Mehmet II and Steve Jobs had epitomized that creativity is compulsory to achieve success. The exotic ideas of smartphone and bringing the ships across the land helped them to realize their dreams. Thus, we must think out of the box to succeed.

Book: Stormy Weather by Anita Ganeri

Credit: http://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Weather-Horrible-Geography-Ganeri/dp/0439944538

This is a great book to prevent yourselves from being the victims of the storms or tornados!

Anita Ganeri introduced this topic by explaining how the storms are actually formed. One of the most stunning fact that I had read in this book is about the real shape of the rain drops. All of us thought that a rain drop has a shape of circle with pointed part on the top. However, according to this book, it is actually in the shape of a semicircle!

The real shape of a rain drop

This shocking fact made me realize that anything I know presently might be wrong! One main question I think about; Is history that I learned right? Absolutely I have to investigate about it deeper before I could reach a conclusion. This incident instigates me to think wisely and motivates me to learn more about anything. Maybe I can know much better compared to now.

Another useful information I got from this book is on how to be safe during a storm. All the do's and don'ts are listed in it. If we are trapped in an open place such as field, we have to crouch down to avoid being struck by the lightning. However, it is dangerous to lie down flat on the ground as the wet ground may be a good conductor to our body. Wearing wellington boots are also useful as they are good electrical insulators.

What if we are trapped in the cars or airplanes? Well, we are actually in a perfect condition! Don't worry as the metal body will conduct the lightning around and outside, not inside. Thus, although we will have a bumpy ride if we are in the airplane, we will be less likely being struck by the lightnings.

Have you heard about a person who have survived in a tornado? On May 3 1943, a tornado struck Roy's house in Texas. He and his children were panicked, and they quickly gathered in a bedroom although they were really scared. When they felt the tornado was going to hit them, he closed his eyes tightly. But after a few seconds, he opened his eyes and amazed! The sky above him was really clear, and they were actually inside the eye of the tornado! This actually occured because of the movement of tornado. It actually hops, not slides. Thus, it is not impossible to survive in a tornado. Yet, the chance of survival is really low. Never expose yourselves to them just to be in the eyes; you will kill yourselves!

Generally, this book is a great book for both children and adults. For those who are interested in the field of geography, it is a fun book to learn about the storms. On the other hand, it is also important to know about the ways to prevent ourselves from being the victims of storms and tornados.

Essay #6

Do we only value what we struggle for?

The question as to whether we value only what we struggle for or not is not as easy to answer as it may seem. Some people like Thomas Paine think that valuable life has meaning only in struggle =, which we need to put much effort to achieve something. However, personally, I am sure that there are many other things that are valued not only what we struggle for.

I do not have any doubt that we always value what we had done strenuously. Of course our appreciation towards the actions will be higher when they end with flying colors. In my own experience, I had recently struggled to write an attractive essay for a writing contest held by Mercy Mission. A second after I read about the competition, I was determined to join it although I was not sure that I could win it. Starting from brainstorming the ideas, I really hoped that my essay would be the best among the competitors. Besides asking help from my family members to correct my essay, I had also searched in the Internet everyday to find the most suitable facts to be included in it. Even though I was going to undergo a major examination that year, I still persevered to send it. At last, my efforts were prized. My essay turned out to be the second runner-up and I received an 'MP3' as a reward. Until now, I really value the musical gadget as I will bring it along wherever I go. Thus, it is proven that we value for what we struggle.

On the other hand, gifts especially from the loved ones are really valuable for us. As we look and use them, we will see their faces slowly appear in our minds. The gifts will create a chain of valued reactions. For example, the plushies given by our parents when we are children results in a valued relationships. If they are stolen or destroyed, we will surely get mad. In fact, I also have gifts from my family which I value most. One of them is a blue Tupperware bottle from my older sister and I do not even want anyone to scratch it. This example showed that gifts are also valued although they are not what we struggle for.

Furthermore, surely most of us value knowledge that we get, especially when it changes our life. In the cyber world, we could see that many quotable sayings from famous people and wacky facts that are spread in the social sites. For example, when someone read a quote on how to be a happy person in the Twitter, he or she will 'retweet' it again to let others know. The knowledge gained in the Twitter, Facebook or Whatsapp are mostly coincidence. We only know them when someone share them with us. After that, if we find them useful, we will then forward them to others so that it will be spread out to all other people. Clearly, coincident knowledge will also be valued by us.

The examples above show that the statement we value only what we struggle for is wrong. Gifts by loved ones and knowledge are also valuable as we will appreciate them by keeping them carefully and sharing them with others. Therefore, value all the things that we get as we might not get them later.

Movie: We Bought A Zoo

WE BOUGHT A ZOO

I really recommend this movie for anyone!

Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389137/quotes

The movie WE BOUGHT A ZOO is about a poor family that had to get out of the house because the father cannot afford the rental fees. The mother had died, so the single father had to take care of his two children all by himself. Finally they found a zoo that was going to be sold at an affordable price. Having no other choices, he decided to buy the zoo as a shelter for his family. At first, his son felt that it was horrible to live in such a place that was only reserved for animals. However, he kept on working on the zoo because he realized that he could do something for it. His passion to bring back the lives in the zoo finally being paid. Many tourists visited the zoo after the zoo was totally clean and suitable for visits.

I found that this movie is really interesting and inspiring. I never thought that this is actually based on a true story, when I finally knew that it had really happened. Imagine if you were the person, you would never buy a zoo for your home, right?

This movie taught me to believe on any ideas that I imagined. Although they seem to be impossible, what if we really put our hard work on them to realize them? Remember the saying goes, 'Nothing is impossible'. No one really know the future, neither can control it. Thus, we should do our best to ensure that we will be the best person in our life.

However, never compare ourselves with others. They may looked better than us, but we have our own uniqueness and specialties. Not everyone have the same strength, and everyone have their own weaknesses. We should work on our strength, and at the same time, reduce our weaknesses. If we just try to emulate someone's characters, it may results to a stress. Talents cannot be copied.

Besides, the movie had shown to me that family relationship is really important. Although in the movie, the mother had died, the father had taken his responsibilities to care for his children. To be a single father is really tough. Single fathers have to work for money and do the houseworks. However, he was very dedicated towards his children, and they spend much time together to build again the zoo. Then, their good relationship caused the zoo to become alive again.

To conclude, this movie can inspire many people to keep working on their dreams. Even the poor people can become a millionaire in the future. This movie is really recommended for people of any ages. I hope that more inspiring stories will be produced afterwards.  

Book: The Key to the Universe by Kjartan Poskitt

This is not a novel, also not a travelogue. It was just a reference book about Maths. Wait a second, Maths? Why should I read something like that? Truthfully, I love to read something that depicts weird and wacky facts like this. This book is actually on of the Murderous Maths series which I bought at the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale. Although the genre of the book seemed to be monotonous, they succeed to attract people using the attractive style of writing and figures and also the strange facts that they present in a funny way.

One of the topics that attracted me most is about the perfect number. Perfect number is a number which when their factors are added up, the sum is equal to the number itself. I doubt that you understand it. Let me take an example. 6 is a perfect number because when the factors (1,2 and 3 – 6 is not included) are added, it will give 6 as a result (1+2+3=6). Many people thought that the perfect number is used in our life, such as 28 (1+2+4+7+14+28=28) is the amount of days taken by the moon to revolve around the Earth. However, what about the bigger perfect number like 496 and 8128? In the book, they are mentioned as perfectly useless number as they just find it out for no reason.

This fact reminded me that there is nobody in the world that is perfect. If all of us are perfect, others will be useless. Just look around and see people with us. The chef cannot cook if there are no farmers or fishermen to provide them with raw food. The students cannot learn without teachers and books written by the authors. The workers cannot live without their leader and so on. We are all depending on one another. The differences between us should not be the reason to be separated, we should be thankful and use it to recognize them. Therefore, everyone will appreciate one another and the world will become peace.

Nevertheless, not all Maths facts that are useless. The golden ratio, also known as phi (ɸ), is one of the eminent ratio especially used by the artists to create amazing arts. It is actually an irrational number, which have a never ending value, which is 1.6180339887498948482045... This ratio is found to be in most natural creatures such as in the flowers, the nautilus shells of molluscs and many more. This ratio had also applied in the ancient arts such as Parthenon and the drawing of Mona Lisa. Even our body follows the golden ratio such as the ratio between our different fingers. Although the number is so irrational, but it is really useful for us.

Same goes with us. We might think that our ideas are irrational, but just try to realize it by using appropriate ways. Maybe it can be an immense idea in the future that could benefit us. I watched a video comparing a child and a man. A child think that nothing is impossible to be done although it will harm him or her. On the other hand, an adult sometimes feels that most of his or her ambition cannot be true. Somehow, a person with the same idea that work it out receives an award for the idea. Thus, never afraid to imagine anything, as long as we will work for it.

Referring to the title 'The Key to The Universe', numbers can be used throughout the world and even in other galaxies. It is not same as History, Science and Geography that only apply on certain parts of the world. However, that does not mean that the other subjects are useless. They are important to us to deeply recognize ourselves. Therefore, gain knowledge as much as you can and share them to be a useful person!

Novel: Shall We Tell the President by Jeffrey Archer

Featuring FBI agents, this novel is really great for someone who loves adventure and investigation. Mark Andrews and other FBI agents had just figured out an assassination attempt on the first female president of the United States. They were told by a man who had been beaten in a cafe he had worked at. He had accidentally heard their plans and immediately told the FBI as he was feeling too afraid. Unfortunately, the man was killed on the hospital bed itself while the FBI agents were not around. Thus, they really had to work out by themselves to prevent the assassination from happening. They planned not to interrupt the president's schedule to make sure that the men behind all those would not know about them. However, accidents happened that caused only Mark Andrews to stay alive, which he was also pretended to die in order to keep his existence as a secret. Thus, he worked it out with the FBI leader that they finally found out the assassinate. They were flabbergasted to know that it was one of the politicians that actually planned it. At last, they managed to arrest them just before they managed to complete their plan.

I am fascinated about the FBI's decision not to tell the president about the assassination trial. Maybe most of us will not do the same thing, exposing the president to death and to capture the criminal in action. Although the plan seemed to be dangerous, but somehow they managed to solve the plan and eventually saved her from being killed. This taught me on how to have a prodigious strategy in order to defeat the criminals. Although I do not want to be a policemen, but at least I could know how they arrange the plans to save the country.

Besides, the hospitalized man also shown a great bravery to tell the police and the FBI to prevent the assassination of his own respected president. Although he had been beaten strenuously, he never afraid to tell the truth although he knew that maybe the FBI would not be 100% trust on him. He was just an ordinary cafe worker who had accidentally heard about it. He had also shown his patriotism and respect towards the president although she was just a woman. Not everyone are willing to sacrifice their own soul just to save their leader, but the man proved it.

However, I am still disagree with Mark's actions to befriend with the woman who is one of the suspect that they had been investigating. He should follow the advices given by his president to stay away from the girl because she might be involved in the crime. Nevertheless, he secretly kept his relationship and tried to meet her everyday as they were in love. Lucky for him that her father was not the one who was caught that red-letter day.

Based on the pros and cons of this novel, I generally recommend this novel for the youth that love action stories very much. Maybe it is not suitable and will not be read by the people who always interested in love stories only.

Movie: Good Will Hunting

At first glance, I thought that this movie was surely interesting because it starred Robin Williams, one of the most popular actors. Besides, this movie also have the setting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which is among the top universities in the world. Thus, for these reasons, my family and I decided to buy this DVD.

Will, an ordinary cleaner in MIT was actually a genius man. Although he used to go to the bar, spending his time with his friends for useless thing, but he knew much about the history and mathematics. Surprisingly, he also succeed to solve a maths problem, which had caused trouble to the previous mathematicians for many years. Fortunately, a maths lecturer saw him doing the calculations and that caused his life to change.

However, Will was just caught for some criminal cases and had been sentenced to be prisoned. The lecturer used this opportunity to meet and speak to him. Gerald, the lecturer, promised that he could bring out Will from the prison but for some conditions. Will should attend Maths classes with him and also have some counseling to change his bad behaviors. At first, Will seemed to be unhappy about the counseling which he felt that it was nonsense, but after Gerald advised to him that it was better than to be in the prison, he accepted the offer unwillingly.

Truly, it was hard to counsel the young man. Many counselor met him, and many of them had left him as they cannot withstand of him. Gerald decided to ask his old friend to help him. Fortunately, his friend was able to accept him although the first meeting went badly. At last, Will received the offer to work at a prestigious company, but he decided to reject it only because of a lady.

For my opinion, actually I did not like the ending. A lady could not be a reason for someone to just let go an opportunity to change his future. If I am Will, I will just accept the work to get some money for the future. Maybe the money can as well be used for my wedding and afford my life. The work can also change the perceptions of people on Will that he was actually a gifted person, not just an ordinary lad going to the bar everyday.

There is one value that I learned from this movie. In Malay tradition, there is a saying that sounds like 'If the back of the knife is being sharpened, it may be sharper.' This means that someone's history should not necessarily show his future. Every person can change themselves, either bad to good or the opposite. In this movie, Will changed from a guy who used to go to the bar to a high-ambitioned man. This shows that everyone can be a good person as long as they are determined.

Although there is some values in the movie, I do not recommend this movie to be watched, especially the young ones. There are too many rude words used by the actors to express their minds, and they are not suitable for the fresh minds to hear them. Thus, they will not speak rudely towards other people, instead they will be more polite.

 In a nutshell, I do not like this movie because of the weird ending and the words used in it. I hope that all of us can have better film for the benefit of ours.

Words:

1. Contentious (adjective)
   Meaning:  likely to cause arguments
   Ex: They used the contentious issues to get the people's support.
   
2. Attorney (noun)
   Meaning: lawyer
   Ex: My ambition was to be an attorney but now I am a teacher.
   
3. Crony (noun)
   Meaning: a friend
   Ex: Her crony is one of the most popular man in the world.

Novel: Nine Lives by Teoh Choon Ean

It is fantastic! At last I found a novel which is suitable for my reading. I think that most previous English novels that I read have too many actions that I myself sometimes did not understand what were going on actually. The novel Nine Lives was actually the second runner-up for English Novel Category in Utusan Group Prize for Literature 2005. Although this book is quite old, but it contains umpteen good messages that can be applied, especially for the young readers.

At first glance, I thought that this novel was all about a cat, referring to the title. However, as I read throughout chapters, the main character is actually a young girl who was trying to learn about the true life. So why it is named 'Nine Lives'? Actually, the young girl always talked to the cat to tell it all about her experiences throughout the day. Every chapter contains one beneficial experience that Bee Lian had gone through. Good for her, she had very great friends of different races, which they frequently tried to solve others' problems, especially their schoolmates. For instance, when they found out that a girl was having a problem with the arrogant friends, they tried to keep her calm by telling the truth that the branded things were actually fake ones. Thus, the girl back to her happy life without trying to burden herself just for the branded things. This story had taught me that branded things are not important for a happy life. It depends on how the leaders manage their families. Even the fishermen in the villages are able to have a happy family as long as they do not quarrel between the members. We can also see that some rich people do not have enough time to spend with their own family. Instead, they just pushing themselves to finish their work which could be a never-ending situation. Some of them even decided not to take vacations although they are entitled to get some payed holidays just to make sure that they will have higher position in the future. However, this does not mean that we should not be rich. We just have to have a great plan to arrange our time perfectly.

There are many more moral values mentioned in this novel. However, I would not tell you every single value as you should read it by yourselves to have the real feeling about it. Instead, I want to mention about the ending. It was a sad ending yet beneficial for Bee Lian to begin her journey of life. Her cat was dead! It was hit by a lorry when it was trying to cross the road. From then on, she did not have any 'friend' to talk to. Nevertheless, her grandfather actually heard all the conversation between her and the cat as he was always behind her every night. Bee Lian realized that it was the moment for her to start to converse really to people, not a cat. Then she knew that her grandfather was actually a good listener too. Quoted from her grandfather's saying, “Remember, how long the night, the dawn will break. Never never give up hope in your life.” This saying kept Bee Lian to continue her life as a young adult, who is beneficial to herself and society.

I really advice all of you to read this good novel. The novel industry in Malaysia should also follow the way of teaching the moral values in the novels, not just putting some empty actions or humor to attract the readers. I hope that more this kind of novels will be written by the novelists.

Words I learned:

1. Furtively (adverb)
   Meaning: secret, acting as though you are trying to hide something because you feel guilty
   Ex: I told the principal furtively as I sat in front of him.
   
   
2. Hesitant (adjective)
   Meaning: slow to speak or to act because you are not sure you should or not
   Ex: The girl hesitant to speak in front of the public during the event.
   
   
3. Flawless (adjective)
   Meaning: perfect; with no faults or mistakes
   Ex: He had done a flawless speech during the graduation ceremony.
   
   

Movie: Frozen

I think that this is the most popular movie for this decade. Many merchandises such as t-shirts, stationeries and toys are being decorated by the frozen characters, especially Princess Anna and Elsa. The song 'Let It Go' and 'I Want to Build a Snowman' are also renowned by most people, no matter they are children or adults. I do not know why it is so popular, but I don't have any doubt that this movie contains many moral values to be learned.

I just tell the short synopsis of this wonderful story. Princess Elsa, if I am not mistaken, is the older sister of Princess Anna. At a certain age, Elsa got the power to freeze anything that she touch. Pity her, she had to be in her room alone to avoid anyone from being harmed by her uncontrolled power. Anna also felt lonely for not being with her sister. When they got older, they had a party that forced Elsa to got out of her room. Somehow, Elsa accidentally froze Anna's heart, which could be fatal to her. Elsa felt very guilty and ran away to a hill, far away from their castle. Anna tried to find her sister but to no avail. They were told that only a true love could save Anna. They thought that her lover could cure him, but he was actually a liar. At last, Elsa came when Anna had totally froze. Elsa was so sad that she cried heavily while hugging her lovely sister. Eventually, Anna began to cure and back to her normal condition. Thus, it showed that the true love is the love between the sisters.

The ending was rather cool and different from others. Many of us are being told that a true love is between guys and girls, like in the story of a princess and a frog. However, we forgot that family love is much more important as we live with them from baby until we die. They are those who teach us, make us happy, and many more in longer time than others. Therefore, appreciate our family before we lose it.

Besides the family relationship, we should also be aware of the people especially men who like to play around with girls and then just leave them as if they are no one. We could see in the movie that Anna was being lied by a man who just wanted her money, not truly loved her. Thus, girls should not be deluded by the physical appearance and sweet promises which could not be true.

This movie is really suitable for young kids, but adults can also watch it! Although this is an animation, it brought many good values to be practiced by all of us. There is no unsuitable words, nor inappropriate actions to be watched by the kids. So, I really recommend this movie to be watched by all of us! (although most of us had watched it)

Words:

1. Impale (verb)
   Meaning: to push a sharp pointed object to something/somebody
   Ex: I impaled the fork to the meat and brought it away.
   
2. Icicle (noun)
   Meaning: a pointed piece of ice that is formed by water freezing as it falls or runs down from something
   Ex: Beware of the icicle, I am afraid that you may be injured.
   
3. Crimson (adjective, noun)
   Meaning: a dark red color
   Ex: The crimson dress is very attractive.

Essay

In general, people are living longer now. Discuss the causes of this phenomenon. Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay.

There is no doubt that science and technology had totally changed our life to be better. The new inventions and findings done by the scientists can benefits us or even harms us. However, in terms of ages, it is proven that people today have older average age than the previous ones. According to a research, the current world average age is about 75 years old compared to 50 years old in 1900. Therefore, it is proven that we live longer than our ancestors.

Science and technology has helped us in searching the suitable medicines to treat the fatal diseases which could not be treated previously by our ancestors. For instance, recently in 2009, researchers from University of California, Davis had eventually found a drug which can reduce heart enlargement. This will cause the risk of heart failure to be reduced and also prevent kidney failure. They used the facilities in the cardiac laboratories to complete the research. There are also certain people who have the modern pacemakers in their heart, which could replace the natural pacemakers in order to keep the hearts pump blood to all parts of body. These show that the inventions of the new equipment can help in lengthen the people's ages.

Furthermore, the technology in food processing also benefit our lives. The processed food are enriched with much useful vitamins, minerals, proteins and so on. Nowadays, most products sold attract the public to buy them by providing some information about the nutritional contents. Some are also added with more calcium, which is more suitable for kids and pregnant women. Excellent food packaging also ensures that they are not harmful for the customers as they are not exposed to the air. For example, the canned food are vacuumed first and steriled after being sealed so that no harmful bacteria will grow in it as there is no air to live. Therefore, harmful diseases such as malnutrition and food poisoning can be prevented. Thus, the food technology has increased the average age of human being.

Moreover, we could also see that many advertisements and programs are conducted for public in order to increase the health awareness among public. These are very good as healthy lifestyle can also contribute for the longer life. Such programs teach us on how to have a balanced diet, which sports are suitable, motivation on health and others. Thus, people will be more educated on those significant things for their life. For example, in certain countries such as Brunei, smoking is totally prohibited in all covered buildings in accordance to reach the aim of having a smoke-free environment. Some non-profit organizations also encouraged people to at least walk 10,000 steps a day to keep their hearts in a healthy condition. Thus, public awareness on health can keep them live longer.

 In conclusion, technology and campaigns held nowadays cause people to live longer than before. This is the opportunity for the young men to keep advancing our technology with the help of the wise old ones as they have much more knowledge gained from their experiences. More babies can also be born to increase the population of the world community. Pretend that all the people are young, would not it be bad for us?