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January 2009 |
Home Learning Blog Prompt: Robert Frost - Monday, June 29, 2009 7:01 PM Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. (Source: www.wikipedia.org) Robert Frost is a unique man, with unique perspectives to everything that he does or writes. It is reflected in his pieces of work that I have posted below. Especially the poem 'The Road Not Taken'. He chooses to take the other road that others do not. The symbol in the poem is, of course, the road. The road represents his life, and he twists and turns of this road represents the choices he made. He did not know if he should 'ever go back' to the road more familiar to him. But he stuck to that path in life, and 'that made all the difference'. This reflect his difference from others, the courage to be able to face upto something different, and quickly adapt to it. These are three of his poems. I hope the vividness of his words will awaken you: The Lockless Door by Robert Frost It went many years, But at last came a knock, And I though of the door With no lock to lock. I blew out the light, I tip-toed the floor, And raised both hands In prayer to the door. But the knock came again. My window was wide; I climbed on the sill And descended outside. Back over the sill I bade a 'Come in' To whatever the knock At the door may have been. So at a knock I emptied my cage To hide in the world And alter with age The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favour fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice - Sunday, June 28, 2009 8:13 PM Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends. There is some personification in this poem. "And there the moon-bird rests from his flight to cool in the peppermint wind." This is the closest thing to a hyberbole: "And there the sun burns crimson bright" I particularly like this poem for being so delicate, and it has a sort of falshback feature. It is really deep when it comes to emotions, and it is evident that this author is adept at bringing out sadness and gladness in his reader. He made me think twice about my everyday life. What if one day we do have to leave this place where the smoke blows black, and go beyond the sidewalk to the land beyond. This poem reminds me of a song I heard on the radio, which almost made me cry. A guy like me crying? Must be really sad for a poem. This author has moved me, or at least my heart and my focus, to the future. What kind of future would we all want? 55 Fiction: FAMILY REUNION - Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:01 AM FAMILY REUNION My mother died just last year. The pain of the reality was still caused fresh tears to flow. I slipped the red pill into my mouth. It tasted bitter, but I savoured my last taste in life. It started with the numbing of my fingers, then my vision slowly ebbed away. ‘See you soon, Mother…’ 55 Fiction: CURE FOR DEATH - 1:00 AM CURE FOR DEATH That day I rushed to the hospital straight from the office. Susan had been shot in a robbery. ‘Doctor, how is her wound?’ ‘Fine. She should be able to leave by morning.’ ‘Where was she shot?’ ‘Where her kidney was, before she donated it to you for your kidney failure.’ Philosophy: Could there ever be a perfect world and what would it be like? - 12:48 AM Could there ever be a perfect world and what would it be like? The perfect world is one that can support life so that its inhabitants can live their lives to the fullest. The perfect world would have everything every individual would ever desire, whether it is communism or democracy, or education or a carefree life. Everything will live together in harmony and equality, and never will there be wars or things that cause sadness. People would all work together to accomplish each other’s goals and missions, and there would never be opposing factors that impair anything, whether animal or human being, to do whatever they want to do. Everything would be treated would respect, and there would be no outcasts or exiles. There can never be a perfect world, simply because nothing can ever be perfect. The world as it now is hardly living in harmony; Mankind rules, animals are hunted, their numbers controlled by human beings, and even among human beings there are conflicts, wars that cause death and grief over the death of other humans, and this world definitely does not have anything having whatever it ever wanted. The people who live life on the fast track are happy, yes, but they also worry that their wealth would soon be taken away from them. People who are born in poverty and die at an early age sometimes never get anything that they want. I think that the perfect world will only be possible if everything and everyone is equal in everything they do. If everyone had the same perspectives, goals, and intelligence, the world would be much better than it is now, as we would all come together in unity as a family. And it will be quite true when I say that that is very unlikely to happen. There would always be one person in the lot who cannot resist the pull of greed, or share opposing views to others, become exiles, and eventually rebel and threaten the existence of his ‘family’. Through this stereotypes are formed. Stereotypes that fixes what someone would think of another for a long time, and so things that have been done will never be forgotten. Among those things there will be undesirable truths that will always be remembered and are almost impossible to heal. Once there was conflict between black people and white people, which was eventually solved, but the stereotypes still remain to cause more prejudice against the two factors. Still, we all can avoid starting conflicts that can be stopped. With emotion we can never have a perfect, as our emotions ensure that we will always have opposing views. However, if we set aside the difference we can prevent some conflicts from happening, and if everybody were to accept each other as we are, to see past the stereotypes, the world can be as close to perfection as possible. Philosophy: Will having fun make you happier than studying? - Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:02 PM Will having fun make you happier than studying? Having fun means I will be happy, and I won’t be very happy studying, so the answer is obviously yes. I don’t think anyone in the world likes studying or finds it fun, but sometimes having too much fun will bring about the guilt of not studying for so long. In this situation, I would be happier studying than having fun because having ‘fun’ will not be fun anymore. For example, when you are out playing at the arcade and having fun, you will be happy until you realise that unless you study, your mother would most likely not buy you an Ipod Touch that you wanted so badly. Thus you have no choice but to study, or you will not be happy in the future. Now I realise that there are two ways of looking at the question. If you compare the two at this point of time, having fun would obviously win over more ‘yes’es than studying. But if one is look at this question from the future and compare these two things, he will find that studying truly gives the most happiness. If you compare someone who has studied all his childhood away and only stops studying at 21 years of age, and compare it to someone who has been having fun up to 21 years of age, you will most likely find that the person who studied will have a better life the rest of his life, with all the degrees and scholarships that he earned from his time sent on studying and improving himself. The 21 year-old who spent his life having fun and going out for parties will find that he cannot have fun anymore as he is out of money to spend on his expensive parties. He will most likely turn to gambling away whatever earnings he has left and end up dying at an early age of an illness he has no money to cure. Since the average life-span of a human being is about 70 years or more, the person who spent the 21 years studying will find more happiness for the rest of his life than the person who spent his life having fun. However, of the circumstance is that the person who studies dies at twenty one years of age, or that he chooses to spend his whole life studying for some strange reason, or that the person who spends his life having fun has inherited all the money in the world, he would obviously have more happiness than the person who wasted his life studying to his own grave. Therefore, the lesson to be learnt from trying to answer this question is that we must all learn when to stop; doing something to excess or doing it too little is also bad, therefore we must do our best at trying to keep it balanced. Philosophy: How do you know you are not dreaming right now? - 7:31 PM How do you know you are not dreaming right now? By now everybody should be able to tell whether they are dreaming or not. How do I know that I am not dreaming right now? The answer to that is simple, because if I were asleep, I would definitely not be typing out my homework assignment instead of doing some incredible thing. Dreams have a very delicate reality, even the extremely vivid dreams, if you manage to awake the slightest bit of consciousness, you will find that there is something wrong with yourself or your environment, for example if you just got something you wanted for at least a year when you did not have to do anything to get it at all. However, if you are worrying about something too much, which most of the time happens to me when the holidays are ending, it will affect your ability to be able to tell if you are dreaming or not. If you are too worried about something you need to do, say your holiday homework, you will end up in the classroom getting chewed up by you Math teacher for not doing you homework, or dream about something you intend to do to fix your worries, like sitting in front of the computer frantically typing out the math equations. Right now I know I am not dreaming as I know clearly what I am typing out and my thoughts are clear. Furthermore, I know that there is nothing that is too good to be true as I am still wishing that I have an Ipod Touch. And if I am dreaming right now, I would wake up to find that someone mysteriously posted some of my homework on my blog, all the better for me. - 8:41 AM Today I went at 9.30 in the morning to pick up Nic Oh for my outing, which I was pretty sure was going to fail. And it did fail, really badly. First we went to Macs and became fatter on the McGriddles there, then we went for Transformers 2, which I was so proud to be the first one watching it, until Shanisse revealed that she watched the sneak preview yesterday T.T, not to mention I got this giant bag of popcorn that I could hardly finish. And apparently Davis was in the cinema as well, because 'someone' attracted him there. Then we went back home and cut Daryl and Shanisse's b-day cake. So I tried to brighten the mood by playing some music from Mio TV, but at the moment they were playing this eminem song that had a sick MV, so I got pwned by the girls. Then we played spin the bottle, except the bottle was my phone... Then we went to play table-tennis, and Bradley did something really kind. See, there was this couple playing, and Bradley challenged them and lost. So the guy's gf was like, jumping in ecstasy. In other words, Bradley improved their relationship :D. In the middle of us playing, Limin had to go home, so I had to escort her to the MRT cause my mom told me to, and then Bradley followed -.- Then everybody started going home, and soon only me, RB, shan and brad were left, so we went for dinner at 4.30pm at KFC, where we had a heated discussion about Davis and some sick jokes, where I learned what 'suan' means! So after that we went to the arcade and instead of TC3 or DDR, we had to play this dumb game where we wasted like, $30 trying to get gay stuffed toys, and in the end we still didn't get it. Ok fine, it was kinda my idea, lol. Then everybody left and I went home to sleep. So anti-climax right? I hope next time can have more people that can stay longer. Transformers 2 rocked though. Book Evaluation 2: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 8:36 AM Book Read: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows From this story I have learnt many things and definitely more than one lesson. The lesson that truly stayed in my head was that everybody’s time must come, meaning that everyone must eventually die. Harry refused to believe that one should accept other’s deaths. He could not accept Tonks’, Fred Weasley’s, or Remus Lupin’s death, not even the death of his owl. Through the story Harry had to be taught his lesson, and he was not a fast learner. He only truly learnt the lesson when he discovered that he was a Horcrux, and in order to destroy Voldemort, all Horcruxes must be destroyed. Harry finally accepts that he has to die in order to destroy his enemy. Thus he submitted himself to death through Voldemort’s wand. He was later resurrected and finally defeated Voldemort. Before this he had already possessed all three hallows, and he had already become the Master of Death and that he no longer had to die, but still gave up the hallows to become mortal once again. This part of the story is extremely significant in symbolising that Harry had accepted death as everyone’s fate, and that he was not afraid of dying anymore. The ending to the story would be about the consortiums the children of Harry and Ginny, Ronald and Hermoine, and Draco Malfoy. They would be sitting in the assembly area on their first day, awaiting the Sorting Hat to pick out their respective consortium. Albus Severus is Harry’s child, Rose is Ronald’s, and Scorpius is Draco’s. These are only the children that would be entering Hogwarts on their first day. This would be how it goes: Albus Severus had his fingers crossed. What if he got into Slytherin? Harry would try to comfort him, but he would be able to feel the disappointment within his father. “Rose Weasley!” came the cry of the Sorting Hat. Rose smiled sweetly at Albus, and he smiled back. He hoped that they could both be in Gryffindor. She walked up to the Hat confidently and let the Hat do its job. “This one is pretty and mischievous, so very difficult to decide. She will go nicely in… Gryffindor!” Albus’ chest felt unusually heavy, and the excitement made him feel nauseous. He was going to be next; he saw the ‘lips’ of the sorting hat parting and pronouncing every syllable of his name with perfect articulation. “Albus Severus!” Albus walked quickly up the small flight of stairs, once accidentally tripping and causing giggles to form through the crowd of students present in the area. The Sorting Hat settled comfortably on Albus’ head, and seemed to have already decided which consortium he would be in. “So this is the offspring of Harry Potter, eh? Why, then there leaves me no other choice than to put him in Gryffindor!” The last word rang in Albus’ head like a bell. He could hardly believe his luck! He stumbled back to his seat next to Rose, who gave him a pat on the back. The rest of the Sorting was hardly eventful to Albus and his friend, but the final one who was Sorted was none other than Scorpius Malfoy. Rose whispered in his ear, “My daddy always told me to watch out for that one. He says I have to beat him in every test and not get to friendly with him, but my mommy says he’s a lot like Daddy.” Albus replied, “He doesn’t look so bad. Maybe we should befriend him.” “Don’t be ridiculous! He’s definitely getting into Slytherin, and Slytherin is our worst enemy!” Came Rose’s reply. “Gryffindor!” Came the Hat’s unexpected declaration… Albus and Rose soon discovered that Scopius actually made quite a good friend. Soon they started eating lunch together, and their parents also started to accept Draco, his father. All was going well in the school of Hogwarts. Below is a short part of the story in Voldemort’s point of view: A red-glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above, as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. Voldemort couldn’t help but flinch at the unbearably bright light, at least to him. Still, he shrieked in his highest hopes for the long awaited defeat of his nemesis, Harry Potter. ‘Avada Kedavra!’ Just when he thought he heard the bolt strike, he heard the boy just manage to retort, ‘ Expelliarmus!’ That, however weak a spell Voldemort knew it was, it managed to swerve the target for Voldemort’s killing spell onto its caster. As the bolt of evil red energy punctured his chest, he protested like he never did in his life, or his half-lives. The pain he could bear, but the triumph he saw in the boy’s eyes he knew he would bring with him down into hell, he could not. His physical form lurched, and Voldemort fell to the ground, the look of utter defiance still ebbed in his features. The author most likely wrote this book for people to understand how deep her understanding of hardship is. Through all that drama and fantastic storyline, the book is most importantly about a troubled young boy, struggling to understand his family heritage, and struggling to find acceptance in those around him. Some say that JK Rowling’s life revolves around the same things as Harry Potter: always trying to hide from her troubles and finally dealing with one problem, such as poverty, just to find out that there are consequences to the fame she has gained while become a bestselling author. Harry’s life is ironic in a similar way as he spends most of his life trying to destroy Voldemort, but in the end realises he has to die for others to make him mortal. Book Evaluation 1: Alara Unbroken - Friday, June 19, 2009 7:41 PM Alara Unbroken Book Read: Magic the Gathering, Alara Unbroken by Doug Beyer This will help in your understanding in the following context. There are Five Shards of Alara. Alara was a plane split into 5 parts by a planeswalker dragon called Nicol Bolas. Naya is a lush jungle, Jund is a searing world of fire, Grixis is ruled by dark magic and the undead, Esper is full of magic, while Bant is a enlightened world of angels and sigiled knights. Planeswalkers are beings that can teleport from one plane to another. Ajani is a Wild Nactal who later discovers he is a planeswalker, disliked by his tribe because of his unusual white fur. Elspeth is from Bant, and she is a planeswalker who came from a world that was in suffering, where she did not want to return to. Rafiq the Many is also from Bant, and is a very decorated knight. He cannot find his honor in the defence of Bant, and is thrown into confusion. When I compare my life so far with that of Ajani, I feel privileged to be born in a world that accepts me the way I am and accepts my tries at second chances. In Alara Unbroken, Ajani is ostracised out of his tribe of Wild Nactal, but whatever efforts he puts in to fit in are in vain. This book has allowed me to realise that I am like an insect next to the rest of the world. There are so many different cultures and ways of life that I am unfamiliar with. I truly feel that the five Shards of Alara are meant to represent the seven continents in the world, as though there are seven continents, some of them share cultures that are widely the same, and Antarctica does not count. Anyways, there is so much to explore out there that I do not even know exists, exactly like the people in the different shards were like: they did not know of the other shards’ existence. If the main character entered my classroom, he would most likely just look confused, and then planeswalk/ teleport to another world. One of the other main characters, Elspeth, was faced with a hard decision to make when the five shards started coming together and chaos ran rampant in her homeworld: her world was not an ideal place anymore, and she could just planeswalk/teleport to another, better world. Should she or should she stay and defend her world with whatever magic she had? If I were in her shoes, I would choose to stay and defend my world, as my world no doubt has provided much for me, so I must stand and defend it. I would like to link this back to my life by saying that Singapore has been my home all my life, and if it is attacked by others, I would give my life to defend it. I learned from this book that whatever problems you have, be it that you are ostracised by others, or that someone is putting something dear to you in danger, it is always best to face the bull by its horns, like how you should face problems by the ‘p’. There were many problems that arose in the book, and I feel that if the characters did not confront them, the story would not have been the same. Once, someone I knew had something very dear to her destroyed by someone she was sure was one of her friends who came to her house one day. This links back to Ajani’s brother, Jazal, getting killed one night by creatures summoned by someone unknown, and Ajani tries to find him or her to exact his revenge. The culprit that destroyed that object was none other than her brother, and the person who summoned the creatures on Ajani’s brother was his childhood friend, Zaliki. Both culprits committed their deeds out of accident. By the way, Zaliki lived, and my friend’s brother did too, just not as well. If I were one of the characters in the book, this would be my diary entry for two consecutive days: The past two days have been extremely confusing. Zaliki told me she was the one who summoned the creatures into our tribe. She said that she heard voices in her head telling her to ‘preserve the peace’ of our tribe. I don’t know if I should kill her or forgive her this accident. After all, she was not directly the one who killed Jazal, was she? The next day she killed Marisi, the one responsible for Jazal’s death all along stripping me of any chance of avenging my dear brother. What should I do now? I have to move on and forget about all this. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the day that I will face off with Nicol Bolas and at last end all this… The important places in the story are the borders of all the five shards: Naya, Grixis, Jund, Esper and Bant, and most importantly, the maelstrom. No change would have to made even if the book occurred 200 years ago, as this story took place not in this world, and there is no sign of modern technology in the whole story. Singapore is a humid place that has gone through much industrialisation, and there is definitely no source of mana for magic. Naya is a lush, untainted jungle of a world. Humans and elves alike worship giant behemoths, seeking to uncover their ancient secrets. Bant is an enlightened kingdom of holiness and angels, where political disputes are settled by means of war, each side having to follow laws set by Asha, the late leader of all angels, as in she is dead. In Esper magic rules the shard. Sphinxes watch over all sentient beings of the shard. Etherium is an alloy that is able to enhance the physical ability of a living being, and the sphinxes ensure that every living thing is ‘cleansed’ with an Etherium enhancement. Grixis is a closed coffin without any source of white mana to give life to its denizens. It festered for centuries, and turned into a cesspit of demons and ghouls. The humans that still live there hide away from the demons. They are the key for the demons to make new undead minions. Jund is a primevial, seething cauldron-world of volcanoes and reptilian predators. Humans live in tribes that stick together to survive. Goblins scurry from mountaintop to mountaintop, seeking the ‘honour’ of getting devoured by dragons. If my story took place in a modern time like today where there is modern weaponry available for use. The humans would be the rulers like in the real world, with their sense of teamwork better than ever, using all the guns and ammunition to gun down the self-centered demons. The humans would come together and fight as one single force, destroying any resistance they come across, from dragons to goblins to planeswalkers. I feel that Ajani’s traits can be represented by a shape that has a circular bottom, and a livid and spiky top, like a symbol of fire. Inside the circle I would describe him as a person who is good at bringing out the best in others, and tolerance, patience and love are his virtues. This would be how I write the ending to the book: Ajani pushed a sponge into the bottom of the wooden bucket, soaking up water and cleanser. He had to clean up Jazal’s lair one more time, before he went away. Away from all this. Naya was never fit for him, and he did not know if he would ever come back. ‘Will you ever be back?’ Ignoring her question, he said, ‘I’m appointing you kha. I’ve met with the elders, and they decided this way was the best. Please, do this for me.’ ‘Ajani, I… is that forgivance?’ ‘It’s close. It’s trust..’ ‘Thank you.’ She managed to say before Ajani abruptly stood up and embraced him. Words that were never spoken were expressed through that one embrace. She left the room after, knowing that she might never see him ever again. Ajani scrubbed all night until the floor until it was clean. He carried the bucket outside the lair and dumped the soiled water over the ledge, into the jungle below. I changed this story as I felt that Zaliki should be better off than in the real story. I felt sorry for her when her folly severed her childhood friendship with Ajani, even when she still cared for him. So I decided to change to story’s ending to a more quiet and touching setting, so that they could embrace and make the story more satisfying to the reader, which is me. I feel that the character that is most like me in this story is Rafiq the Many. He has had a best friend, as I have, and has lost him, as I have. At one point of time he wondered if ‘friendship could be severed with a blade’, as he had affected his friend’s spine so that he was paralysed, but it was not in the intention of truly paralysing him. I have gone through similar thoughts as Rafiq. Rafiq has also faced horrible failure, as I have. He tried to heal his friend’s paralysis, but ended up causing his death. That was a blunder only slightly different from the time I forgot to send my friend a copy of something very important in a file check (that he lost), and thus he ended up dead, like Rafiq’s friend, just in a more horrible way. Rafiq is also someone who has achieved many honours, as I have when I got into Hwa Chong. But he also regrets the stress that is brought on to him when he is seen as the most decorated knight in the world and also as a hero. This attributes to the stress that my family puts on me to do well in my results. And similarly, we have both not done very well. Rafiq got his friend killed, while I failed to get an Ipod Touch. I feel that the word that best describes Ajani is ‘lonely’. He has been a loner his whole life, having only two true friends through his childhood, Zaliki who was forsaken by him, and Jazal who was killed. He hunts alone, hoping to redeem himself for the colour of his skin, and his hunted always gets stolen by his tribe-mates that resent him. He treasures everything that his two friends gave him, and holds sentimental value to everything that he owns. It is the sad truth that he was lonely, so lonely that he mourned his brother’s death and his lost of a friend so much that it ignited his planeswalker spark, and a planeswalker spark, however rare to possess, requires a lot of trauma to ignite. Even at the end of the story, Ajani chose not to stay with Zaliki, his last remaining friends, and planeswalks to another world… The two characters that I will compare are Ajani and Nicol Bolas. They are two completely different beings. Ajani is good at strengthening others by bringing out the best in them, while Nicol Bolas destroys others from within them, thus killing them by bringing out the worst in them. Nicol Bolas forges no real bonds with anyone in the galaxy, but Ajani puts his life before those who accept him as who he is, and he has friends, however few, to fall back on. I would change the part of the story where Nicol Bolas was defeated. This part of the story caused some dissatisfaction, as Nicol Bolas died rather trivially. Ajani brought out another Nicol Bolas from within, which was forged by the power from the Maelstrom. Nicol Bolas was a dragon more than ten thousand years old, and he no doubt had survived much more disasters more dangerous than what Ajani defeated him with. This part of the story is no doubt a mistake in the writer’s part, and this is what I would change if I ever have the chance. Rakka Mar: At the impact, a mighty cascade of lightning burst from where she landed, pent-up magic released from her death. Alteration: Rakka watched in sick pleasure at Ajani, who was holding one of Kresh’s humans in his hands. The pain it’s going through right now must be unbearable. He will have no choice but kill the human, Rakka thought. After a while, she decided that it was taking too and she raised an arm and was about to take out the both of them, when she was swept back by a sudden sphere of overwhelming power. It was a strange thing watching her flesh burn. Then she was impaled in the neck. She never got to know what killed her. Radio Advert: Once upon a time, the plane of Alara was shattered into five planes, each distinctly populated with relative mono-magical culture that reflects each of the five colors. Now, the planes are beginning to realign and merge once more. As nefarious forces work to hasten the cataclysmic realignment for their own gain, the populations of once ordered planes struggle to come to terms with a new planar order in which long separated struggles between opposite clash once more; martyrs face executioners, fire and water, earth and air, growth and decay, the innate versus the artificial. Amid this chaos, Ajani, a fierce leonin planeswalker, struggles to bring justice and resolution to his brother's death. Noble warrior Rafiq searches for the source of this evil that has invaded his world. And Sarkhan Vol, planeswalker and dragon hunter, taps into a power so pure and ancient, it threatens to consume him even as he revels in its unadulterated totality. Get your copy today at your favourite book store. The climax of this story is the part where Ajani fought the final battle against Nicol Bolas. It was not just one tremendous struggle, but involved many other struggles as well, like the battle of the humans and the elves going on elsewhere which the author kept switching back to, and the Nactal civil war was also raging on around them. Ajani’s inner struggles were also included in this part of the story. All this combined no doubt aroused the most emotions in me. The problem in the book is that Ajani has no real friends, and in the end the solution presented by the author is simply to just go to another world, one that he finds more suited for himself. I feel that he should just stay on in Naya and become kha, which is the leader of the tribe. He would have to find acceptance then, and he already could have a clean slate by forgiving Zaliki for all that she had done and become friends again. This would solve his problem and made sure that he would have more friends. The author obviously wrote this book for people who play Magic: The Gathering the trading card game and who would like to know more about the multiverse of Magic. But I think that the personal reason for him writing this book is to ensure that the people who play Magic do not end up having an addiction to Magic the Gathering, and rather play the game as a pastime, spending some of their time reading books like these, and then moving on to other books that are not related to Magic. I would save Rakka Mar, the fiery sorceress, from her death by the hand of Ajani much too early in the book. If she survived the kill, she could have come back to hunt Ajani down, making the storyline of the story more complicated, and inevitably more exciting. In my opinion, the author killed Rakka so fast as he wanted to save the trouble of writing so much more about her. The title is good as it can tell the reader what the story is about and it kind of gives off an aura of magnificence to the book. It is appropriate to the content of the story, and I find that it is creative that the word “unbroken” was used instead of just excluding th word completely or using something more common like ‘reformed’. I feel that the ending of the story can be better, in the way that Ajani did not have to leave Naya, or the Elspeth did not have to leave Bant. There was also no mention of Sarkkhan at the end of the story, and there was no mention of him dying. I would choose Ajani as a friend as he truly needs one. He is compassionate, able to defend himself from others, and most importantly, loyal. He could stand up for me whenever I need an argument won, and nobody would be stupid enough to argue with somebody taller than Yao Ming. PS The answer to q48 can answer the last two questions, so I really don’t see the difference in the questions. Catching Up - Saturday, June 6, 2009 3:11 AM Wow. A lot of stuff happened in my life so far. There was the NPCC camp, going to msia, blahblah.... Anyway I really want to tell you guys abt the NP camp. there was this event caled the Solo Night, that they made us sit in one corner and for 2 hours for our imaginations to run wild, in the dark btw. So it was 12.20 a.m. in the morning and our seniors were telling us a lot of stuff about WWII and how HCI used to be a place of inspection for massacre in WWII (yeah, I never knew too!). Here's the stuff that srsly freaked the umff out of me, if you wan to know: 1. NCO: One of my seniors heard a clapping sound, so he looked up and saw a boy floating in mid-air, clapping by a candle 2. Some other guy: You know there's one toilet in the current art block that has a mirror that is placed on the left of the sink? You know why?? Cos once a student went there, washed his face, and... yalah, he didn't see himself lor... 3. Yet another guy: Long ago there was a student who drowned in a fountain in the part of the campus near the KK statue, so buried it. So if you are stationed there for Solo Night, if you hear someone singing 'hai tian liao kuo yun shu...' then don't be too afraid. So for the Solo Night I was stationed near a patch of bushes near the canteen, so I was staring directly into the bushes, and I wasn't supposed to turn around or do anythin but look in front or down, I had no choice but to hide bury my head in my hands so I could avoid looking into the dark bushes. The first hour was totally freaky cos there was like a lot of ppl freaking out and screaming for help so it wasn't silent at all. But then I thought about the stuff that happened in the morning, about all the ppl who were raped in the icebreaker games, literally raped, and about the grp of NY, Saint Nic's and CHIJ gals who came in the morning to do some sick dance practice (my group called them the horny club, lol) and had to witness the guys getting raped, and it wasn't so bad from then on. The camp generally sucked D: |