Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1st battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peace keeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends Southwestern Michigan College where his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.
The poem talks about Steve Carlsen, a war veteran, his war experience in Afghanistan. The first 2 lines of the poem tells us that the soldiers emptied the injured and dead soldiers out of the plane in front of the author. They had no idea where they should land to for their combat operations. They also ungraciously and unwillingly landed in the middle of the fierce battlefield, which caused the author to panic and afraid. They ran for cover from the fast and furious bullets, terrified by the deaths of their comrades. They fought on all sorts of terrain, tired and frightened, but they were always ensuring that they were well prepared. They were like living in hell they blocked the thoughts of death from their mind. The author feels that fighting in a war and experience shooting with death just few steps away from you, you will have changed. You no longer think that war is proud and glorious but frightening and sad with deaths revolving around you.
27th of February, the spirit of Chinese New Year was still there. Hwa Chong Institution organized a Chinese New Year celebration specially for scholars. And I participated in this event as i had two performance. They are the singing of two Chinese New Year songs, "大地回春" and "恭喜恭喜".
We had hold quite a lot of rehearses before this event and some of our Malaysian scholars acted a short play about "年兽" which I believe everyone has heard before. They worked very hard and put a lot of effort during the rehearsal.
The day where effort comes into place. On that day we were asked to reach the drama centre at 8.00 a.m.which is located very near the boarding school to my convenience. I woke up at 7.30 and brushed changed into bright clothes as this is a prosperous event. When I reached many people have already reached, we rehearsed for the last time and prepared for the event.
We prepared a lot of events such as plays, dances, songs, Chinese riddles, game sessions and many more. All the events were very interesting. After a few performances, it was our play's turn. They acted very well and after that was our first song by all 28 of us Malaysian scholars " 大地回春".
After all the performances, it was time for the last event.
Musical:I wrote a poem about Life In Maycomb County.
Poem: A white and a black, are all the same:human. What gives whites a right to smack, and blacks to just succumb.
A white and a black, are all the same They may stand back to back, But they believe they arn't the same.
A black has a feet, so does the white. A black eats meat, so does a white.
What is the difference between the two? Nothing it may seem. Just that one feels he should rule, and the other just lets him.(For peace)
Interpersonal:I interviewed my friend.
Q:How do you feel about prejudice?
A:Prejudice ought to be eliminated, in an ideal society - especially in societies with a fundamental emphasis on meritocracy - to give everyone the proverbial level playing field, in the name of fairness and equity. however, this might just be a Utopian scenario.
Having prejudice against people is, unfortunately perhaps, an innate part of our nature. Due to negative preconceived notions, over-generalizations or stereotypes about certain groups of people, prejudice against them is already inherent in our thoughts, judgments and even actions. It would be difficult to erase the presence of prejudice in each individuals, especially if their personal experiences reinforces the negative preconceptions about particular groups of people.
Because of the unrealistic idealism of trying to completely eradicate prejudice, we would have to concede that prejudice is but an innate part of being human; if it is not harmful to society at large, extreme or radicalized, there is nothing much that we can do about it.
A:Prejudice ought to be eliminated, in an ideal society - especially in societies with a fundamental emphasis on meritocracy - to give everyone the proverbial level playing field, in the name of fairness and equity. however, this might just be a Utopian scenario.
Having prejudice against people is, unfortunately perhaps, an innate part of our nature. Due to negative preconceived notions, over-generalizations or stereotypes about certain groups of people, prejudice against them is already inherent in our thoughts, judgments and even actions. It would be difficult to erase the presence of prejudice in each individuals, especially if their personal experiences reinforces the negative preconceptions about particular groups of people.
Because of the unrealistic idealism of trying to completely eradicate prejudice, we would have to concede that prejudice is but an innate part of being human; if it is not harmful to society at large, extreme or radicalized, there is nothing much that we can do about it.
This is the start of a new year and also a start of a new blog. My old blog is screwed up because it has been inactive for 90 days. Such a sad story. But never mind this means that i shall have a new blog, and this time i shall not let it be inactive again or i will have to go to all the trouble of making a new blog again.
I hope that you all of you would visit my blog more often. Also, please leave a comment behind and also follow my blog.
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself.
I like Dylon Thomas poems because his poems are nice and sounds interesting. He is an amazing poet said by Aeronwy Thomas who created a website dedicated to Dylan Thomas. He also added that his poems are the best. He Hopes that everyone can go to that website to read Dylon Thomas's poems. A Process In The Weather Of The Heart
A process in the weather of the heart Turns damp to dry; the golden shot Storms in the freezing tomb. A weather in the quarter of the veins Turns night to day; blood in their suns Lights up the living worm.
A process in the eye forwards The bones of blindness; and the womb Drives in a death as life leaks out.
A darkness in the weather of the eye Is half its light; the fathomed sea Breaks on untangled land. The seed that makes a forest of the loin Forks half its fruit; and half drops down, Slow in a sleeping wind.
A weather in the flesh and bone Is damp and dry; the quick and dead Move like two ghosts before the eye.
A process in the weather of the world Turns ghost to ghost; each mothered child Sits in their double shade. A process blows the moon into the sun, Pulls down the shabby curtains of the skin; And the heart gives up its dead.
After the funeral
After the funeral, mule praises, brays, Windshake of sailshaped ears, muffle-toed tap Tap happily of one peg in the thick Grave's foot, blinds down the lids, the teeth in black, The spittled eyes, the salt ponds in the sleeves, Morning smack of the spade that wakes up sleep, Shakes a desolate boy who slits his throat In the dark of the coffin and sheds dry leaves, That breaks one bone to light with a judgment clout, After the feast of tear-stuffed time and thistles In a room with a stuffed fox and a stale fern, I stand, for this memorial's sake, alone In the snivelling hours with dead, humped Ann Whose hooded, fountain heart once fell in puddles Round the parched worlds of Wales and drowned each sun (Though this for her is a monstrous image blindly Magnified out of praise; her death was a still drop; She would not have me sinking in the holy Flood of her heart's fame; she would lie dumb and deep And need no druid of her broken body) . But I, Ann's bard on a raise hearth, call all The seas to service that her wood-tongued virtue Babble like a bellbuoy over the hymning heads, Bow down the walls of the ferned and foxy woods That her love sing and swing through a brown chapel, Bless her bent spirit with four, crossing birds, Her flesh was meek as milk, but this skyward statue With the wild breast and blessed and giant skull Is carved from her in a room with a wet window In a fiercely mourning house in a crooked year. I know her scrubbed and sour humble hands Lie with religion in their cramp, her threadbare Whisper in a damp word, her wits dried hollow, Her fist of a face died clenched on a round pain; And sculptured Ann is seventy years of stone. These cloud-sopped, marble hands, this monumental Argument of the hewn voice, gesture and psalm, Storm me forever over her grave until The stuffed lung of the fox twitch and cry Love And the strutting fern lay seeds on the black sill.
Death and Entrances On almost the incendiary eve Of several near deaths, When one at the great least of your best loved And always known must leave Lions and fires of his flying breath, Of your immortal friends Who'd raise the organs of the counted dust To shoot and sing your praise, One who called deepest down shall hold his peace That cannot sink or cease Endlessly to his wound In many married London's estranging grief.
On almost the incendiary eve When at your lips and keys, Locking, unlocking, the murdered strangers weave, One who is most unknown, Your polestar neighbour, sun of another street, Will dive up to his tears. He'll bathe his raining blood in the male sea Who strode for your own dead And wind his globe out of your water thread And load the throats of shells with every cry since light Flashed first across his thunderclapping eyes.
On almost the incendiary eve Of deaths and entrances, When near and strange wounded on London's waves Have sought your single grave, One enemy, of many, who knows well Your heart is luminous In the watched dark, quivering through locks and caves, Will pull the thunderbolts To shut the sun, plunge, mount your darkened keys And sear just riders back, Until that one loved least Looms the last Samson of your zodiac.
If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda I want you to know one thing.
You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly you forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots, remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.
But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me with implacable sweetness, if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds on your love, beloved, and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine
1)This poem is written in metaphor and symbolism language. "heart where I have roots" is the phrase in the poem that is in metaphor language. "aromas, light, metals, were little boats" in the poem is written by symbolism language. The metaphor language in this poem is to exaggerate the feelings of a person. The symbolism language is for taking another thing to represent something else.
2)I like this poem because it express the feelings of a worried person. This poem is also quite simple and understandable and the author also described the feelings very detailed. The figurative language use are the ones I like the most, metaphor and symbolism. These figurative language makes the poem sound nicer and detailed.
This poem also rhymes and has a nice feeling when you are reading it. The words in the poem are also very meaningful. Besides that, the title also suits the poem. The title has a very sad feeling same like the poem. This makes the poem means a lot to me therefore I like this poem a lot.
I am sick now since Sunday. I have wasted my weekend and two school days because of sickness, sigh.Luckily all the tests were over.
On last Saturday afternoon after the School Open House, I started feeling unwell and drowsy. I thought I was just too tired so I went back to the hostel immediately after the event to have my lunch and shower. After that I did some revision and surfing the net. Due to the tiredness, I went for a nap for around 1 hour.
After the nap, I felt a little better and thought it was not a big deal, so I decided to play badminton with my sister and some of my friends in Kah Kee Hall after dinner.After playing for a while, I started to feel tired which was very abnormal as I do not get tired so fast.
However I ignored it and kept on playing until I felt really tired and cannot take it anymore.I thought that I would be alright after taking a rest so I returned to Boarding School and bathe. After that bath, I felt worse, and I don’t know how to describe it. Therefore I decided to sleep earlier. Unfortunately, my stomach was playing drum then and does not allow me to go to bed immediately.So, I had some biscuits to fill up my stomach before I go to sleep.
The next day, I woke up late because I still felt very tired. After having my breakfast, I checked my temperature and was shocked as my temperature was 37.5 Celsius which indicates a fever. I then contacted my parents and told them about it. They asked me to contact my sister and asked her to company me to see a doctor. As it was Sunday, most of the clinics were not open. Since my temperature was remained at 37.5 Celsius, so my parents just advised me to go back to bed to get more rest and at the same times, asked me to drink more water. I went for a nap from 2 pm to 4pm.
Sad to say that the nap did not help and my temperature shot up to 38.9 Celsius. It is a bad fever. Without any hesitation, I called my parents again. At that time, my mum was really worried and tried to contact my sister again but could not get in touch with her.
So, they contacted one of my seniors who taught me Mathematic last time. He is very helpful and willing to bring me to clinic. He checked with his friend who had a list of clinic's working hours and the address of the clinic. We had to wait for 1 hour and 20 minutes at the clinic because the queue was very long. The weather must be really bad that a lot of people get sick.
My temperature was 39.3 when the doctor checked again. According to him, it was due to virus infection. He prescribed fever, flu and cough medicine to me and gave me two days medical leave.
Even though sometimes I wish I can sleep for a longer hour and no need to wake up before 7am as well as no need to go to school, but I think I have changed my mind. It is better to be with all my friends in school than be alone in the room and boarding school when others are in school. I hope I will get well soon and go back to school again. I missed all my friends.
My English teacher wants us to interview one of our parents about their favourite book for ACE. Therefore, I asked my father through the phone for information of his favourite book. After that ''interview'', I took all the information and posted it on this post. The book he liked most is called the Hardy Boys. The author of the Hardy Boys is Franklin W.Dixon. His style of writing is very unique as it isdifferent from others. That is why my father like this book. That is what makes him story unique and interesting. Hardy Boys has consists of a lot of books. Some of then are Hardy Boys Three In One, Hardy Boys Limited Edition and many more. This books were widely known since my father's time till now.
This made me think of another type of mystery story, Five Find Outer's and Dog. Although this story is interesting, it is not as unique and interesting as the Hardy Boys. It is also not as popular as the Hardy Boys. That is also why my father has more interest in the Hardy Boys compared to the Five Find Outer's and Dog.
The adventures that the Hardy Boys were involved in were quite dangerous as the antagonists, which are the culprits are always armed and in a gang. Therefore, this adds the suspense of the story as the Hardy Boys are always captured but saved in the last minute. His savers are their father, Fenton Hardy and his trusted partner, Sam Radley.
My favorite books are also mystery books, therefore me and my father will always go to bookshops during the weekends. When we reach the bookshop, we always go to the mystery section to find mysteries books, especially the Hardy Boys. We will then spend half of our weekend reading those books. During this time, it will then bring my father back to his sweet childhood memories in the past which he enjoyed.
After my father introduce me the Hardy Boys, I realized that the Hardy Boys is a amazing and unique book. Now, I have some with me in the boarding school thanks to my father's recommendations.
Okay, maybe I should stop blogging about my life, it gets boring after a while doesn't it? So I shall do a book review on "Nothing But The Truth". I will be talking about Phillip Malloy, describing his character's point of view and feelings in the story. Why did dad even called Ted Griffen to talk about what happened in school? Now the whole US even the world knows me. Nowadays I kept on receiving emails, letters and postcards from people all over the world!!!
Why did Coach Jamison start to help the teacher, Miss Narwin. That is why he don't let me join the track team. That must be it. Why is all the students in my class helping her? WHY WHY?
Why did this even happen? I know it must be the teacher. The useless teacher. It must be her. Why did I even bother to come to this dumb school. I want too leave this school now!! The teacher is crazy. I just hummed the national anthem and she said I SANG it.
Like finally, I got a change of school. Now what, they want me to sing to national anthem. I don't even know the lyrics of the song, I just hummed the tune!!
Why is all these things happening to me!! WHY WHY!! I just cannot understand!! I am getting bored of these kind of life!! It is very boring!!!
We woke up at 6.30 in the morning. I felt extremely sleppy because I slept late, at about 12.00 the night before. You would probably be wondering why on earth did I sleep so late, probably assuming that I am too excited talking to my friends than to sleep. WRONG! I felt extremely uncomfortable sleeping in the musty hut. The floorboards were dusty, and the spiderwebs were visible. Okay, shan't dweel on this topic anymore.
So, after having our breakfast, (as always small portion and not the least bit scrumptious) we started the with the activities for the day. First, we went for the most exciting activity of the camp, the Sarimbun challenge. After 5 hours of tiring challenges around the campsite, we went for lunch. By then I was so hungry it felt like I haven't eaten for days. In the end, I ate two sets but my stomach was still growling because I've said, the portion of a set is very small, probably just enough to fill a mouse's mini tummy.
After lunch, we started with an activity called Backwoods-Man Cooking. It is a cooking activity that actually turned out to be fun! The teacher taught us how to cook extraordinary food like sweet banana and orange egg. All of them were YUMMY. I ate a lot as it was way nicer than the food provided. Haha. Ohmy, why do I sound like a glutton.
Anyway, after that we went for dinner (food again!). I was expecting the typical not so nice and only enough-for-feeding-a-mouse dinner but what was served surprised me. This time it was actually NICE. There was chicken nuggets, shocking huh. After that meal we went for a shower. Nothing much happened after that and before I knew it, I dozed off and went food-hunting in dreamland.
To sum up everything, I really hope that the organizers will improve on the quality of the food provided so that the students would have a better experience next year.
The entire Hwa Chong Sec One cohort went for a camp at Sarimbun last Wednesday. We travelled to the very deserted place by bus. On the way, there were a lot of trees and even two cemeteries. Furthermore the cemeteries were very big. The sight of it was blood-chilling and it sent icy fingers running down my spine.
When we reached the campsite, all of us were very excited because the campsite was HUGE. It seemed like the three days is going to be a lot of fun, given the interesting facilities available at the campsite. But it turned out to be different. The grass there was wet and muddy, the huts that we slept in were dusty, the "canteen" was stinky and the toilets were HORRIBLY SMELLY. All in all, everything was DIRTY.
Right at the start of the camp, we were told to sit on the wet and muddy grass. Initially nobody wanted to do so as it was extremely gross therefore everyone squat down with their luggages. When the chief instructor saw us doing that, he made up a rule that says NO SQUATTING. Eventually, we had no choice but to obey.
Thereafter the instructors started introducing themselves, and briefed us about the campsite (i.e where do we sleep, where the toilet is, where the "canteen" is), and where the restricted areas are. The chief instructor then gave us the permission to unload our luggages in our respective huts. When we saw the structure, we were amazed because the outside looked like an antique house which is supposed to be very comfortable. Once again we were wrong, the hut was small and stuffy. 11 people had to squeeze in that small little hut.
There were two bunk beds in each hut. In the end, 2 people slept on each of the upper bunk. 4 and 5 people slept on the two lower bunks respectively. Worse than sardines in a tin.
After taking our day pack, consisting of a bottle, a pen, a notebook, a poncho or raincoat, we went to the canteen to eat. Unfortunately, we were made to wait for one hour and 16 minutes just for a meal. The lousy reason they gave us is that the food was not sent there yet. After that delayed yet not extremely delicious meal, we went for a team building game and rafting.
Both of the activities were pretty boring, to me at least. Next, we went for a fun fitness game which is slightly more interesting.
Lastly, we went for a shower and the still not very delicious dinner. The first day of the camp ended just like this. By the end of it, I really hoped that the second day of the camp would be more exciting.
Finally, after so many hectic days of schooling, this wonderful thing called holidays is just around the corner. This means that all of us will get to go home to meet our family members! Long live holidays (:
Unfortunately, time is passing really really slow, like the clockwork mechanism that is running low on battery. Okay fine, I probably feel this way because I’m too eager to return to this place called home. Sometimes I really have this urge to crack the face of my watch and alter the hour hand to make it go ten times faster. Never mind, I should try to be more patient than this.
Well, after returning home, I would probably end up playing badminton for 7 days consecutively. No, I didn’t type anything wrong, neither did you read anything wrongly, but playing seven days a week is possible. (: Firstly it is extremely fun, secondly, it is a very healthy thing to do. Which is why I love doing the sport so much, to the extent that people think I’m crazy :D
The word badminton has become a part of my life, and part of my family members’ too. There were even times when we rushed to the courts immediately after coming back from a holiday! How scary is that. Hmm only those who truly have the passion for badminton would understand.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” The time and effort spent on the sport are probably x-factors that contributed to my place in the school team. Besides playing during CCA and when I’m home, I also play regularly on Friday and Saturday nights at Kah Kee Hall. The courts would be flooded by 6.30pm every time; hence I always have to reach there as early as possible after dinner to ensure that one court is vacant for us to play. Evidently, I’m not the only one in love with this racquet game.
Generally, I try my utmost best to not miss any sparring sessions like this, hoping that this extra effort would bring my skills to greater heights, as I really wish to play for Hwa Chong in the interschool competitions next year.
I would like to mention about a project I am currently doing. This is a compulsory project for all Sec 1 students. Everyone has to work in a group of 2 to 4.This project consists of 10 category of ideas. Everyone is required to complete the project within the selected category.
Project judging will be performed over a few stages at specific dates. The earliest judging date has been fixed on coming Tuesday in our respective classrooms. We are given short period of time to complete the project. Therefore good time management is the key factor to do a good project on time. Teamwork is also very important. This also requires integrity.
There are three students in my group, namely Lim Eu Gene, selected as our group leader, Wong Yik Hin and myself. We are doing a project under Category 5, Creative Arts. We are supposed to draw a comic book, titled The Last Vector. Our leader, Lim Eu Gene suggested the idea.
Eu Gene and I were classmates during our primary school days. This is added advantage since we know very well our working styles. Both of us liked to draw comics during our free time in the past. We even created some games in our comic books. Comics were very popular in our class those days. We created our own magazine named ‘The A Times’. This will definitely helps our project progressively.
We have to prepare a power point regarding the project for the preliminary assessment. This is the project idea selection and decision making process. This process is a very important stage because we will have first opportunity to impress all judges.
I hope that we can achieve good results for this project therefore we will have to work extremely hard in order to achieve our goal.