Book Review

Genius Squad

Application
Day 1
Dear Diary,
Today had been a very bad day. To begin with, I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning by Janan's piercing screams. Because of my interrupted sleep, I was late for breakfast. It did not really matter as I did not have to go to school, but Mace and Janan, my foster brothers, had to attend school. After finishing breakfast, I returned to my room, only to realise that my mattress was wet. Mace had wet my bed, but was forgiven, as most people made allowances for Mace as they explained that he had badly underdeveloped motor skills for a fourteen-year-old. Glumly, I decided to visit Sonja. However, she stayed far away from the Donkin's house. I overstayed and I missed my usual train, which meant that I missed my usual bus, and had to wait for another thirty minutes. When I finally reached the bus stop, I found a computer monitor at the side of the road, and decided to bring it back to the foster home. When I reached the foster home, a detective arrived to question on the other children that had counselling with Thaddeus Roth. After the interview, I went back to the bedroom, but Mace had already emptied half a can of lemonade into the air vents. Sullenly, I returned to my bed to sleep.

Day 2,
Dear Diary,
There was a email from an unfamiliar puzzle site. Taking all the first words of the email to form words, and then doing it once more with the new words formed, I realised that it was from Com, a classmate from the Axis Institute formed by Thaddeus Roth. However, I could not use the computer anymore, and when I tried to find out if it was Com who sent the email by using the computer at night, I was caught and thus went back to bed.

Analysis
I would compare Saul Greeniaus and Prosper English. Saul, whose job is a detective, is tasked to look after Cadel, and soon becomes very devoted to his job, though his character is cool and calm, and he hardly speaks much. At first, he is seen as a intruder and a busybody, with his unfriendly tone and unsmiling personality. When Prosper English escapes from prison, Saul rushes to Clearview house to protect Cadel, and though some measures he takes may be seen as hostile, he has good intentions, which are only seen by Cadel at the ending of the book.
Prosper English, however, who believes that he is Cadel's father, ruthlessly binds Saul up to capture Cadel. When Cadel tries to escape, he resorts to violence and threats against Sonja, who is disabled and cannot talk without her DynaVox, a device that allows her to type, as she has difficulty talking as well. Prosper English, who believes that he is a genius himself, hates Saul Greeniaus for the care that Cadel shows to him, obvious when Cadel anxiously tries to find out what happened to Saul when after they binded him. As his alleged father, Prosper English is jealous of the concern Cadel shows, and thus regards Saul as a dimwitted person, evident as to the way he responds to Saul during the hijacking of the car that helped him escape.

Synthesis
I would change the ending of the book, where Chester Cramp is discovered to be Cadel's father. I think that it would be easier for the story to be written with Prosper English, who escapes, as his father, so that they can develop on the character and not introduce a new character that has not been introduced in the first two books. Besides, they can show the change in Prosper English, and change him into a round character instead by allowing it to have a chance to change his ways. Besides, I do not think that new characters should be introduced as important ones so deep into the novel, as it gives very little time for character development and interaction with Cadel.

Evaluation
I do not like the way the story ended, with Genius Squad disbanded and Dot revealed as Prosper English's accomplice. As mentioned above, I do not think that introducing Chester Cramp into the story so late would be advisable, with the possibility that he may not have enough time to be introduced. Although most of the members of Genius Squad comes back together, I think that they should not have driven Trader, Tony and Cliff from the story, as they have not been given any room for character analysis. Besides, the ending should have ended off with a sighting of Prosper English, or an interesting ending that would provoke the readers to want to read the last book, the genius wars.

Casino in Singapore

I do not think that a casino should be built in Singapore, as it may introduce many problems in Singapore. Although, the casino helps to create more jobs for the people in Singapore, as well as gain a lot of money for Singapore and boost the tourist industry, I would like to focus on the youtube offering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chbjc-XDKLw Anti-Gambling Singapore, where they state "Often the people who suffer from gambling aren't the gamblers."
Gamblers who become addicted may cause many problems for their families. For one, the families wealth and house may be taken away due to gambling habits. Cases of neglect and abuse can also result with the building of the casino.
The NGISC also heard testimony from domestic violence counselors and law enforcement officials regarding specific problems in casino communities. A domestic violence shelter in Harrison County, Mississippi, reported a 300% increase in the number of requests for help after casinos opened in the county. A large majority of the women seeking refuge at the shelter stated that gambling by their spouses had contributed to the abuse. The attorney general of Rhode Island reported a "significant increase" in the number of domestic assaults that occurred in the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, after the Foxwoods Casino opened in nearby Connecticut.
Casinos also cause bankruptcy when gamblers get addicted and spend all their money gambling.Professors from Georgetown University and Purdue University performed research on 1,000 U.S. counties over five years with the impact of casino gambling on personal bankruptcies, specifically in collar counties with or near casinos. Concluding remarks in the report said,"we found statistically significant increases at the county level in the number of personal bankruptcy filings due to the introduction of casino gambling."3
Casinos may also result in a higher crime rate in Singapore.By Earl L. Grinols
Evidence is converging to show that casino gambling causes significant increases in crime. Taken altogether, casinos impose crime and other costs – paid for by society, including those who do not gamble – that exceed their benefits and represent substantial burdens on nearby populations. Crime may result due to repeated
failures to resist the urge to gamble, loss of control over their gambling, personal lives and employment, reliance on others to relieve a desperate financial
situation caused by gambling, and the committing of illegal acts to finance gambling.
Thus, I do not think that the casino should be built in Singapore.

http://www.netnebraska.org/television/news/ne_connects/gambling/CasinosCrime.pdf
http://www.citizenlink.org/FOSI/gambling/cog/A000002177.cfm

Favourite Poet:Carl Sandburg

From childhood, Sandburg loved and admired the legacy of President Lincoln. For thirty years he sought out and collected material, and gradually began the writing of the six-volume definitive biography of the former president.
I think that Carl Sandburg is a very interesting character as many of his works are on America. Through his poems of America, I think that he wants to display the real facts of life, the reality of what he sees. Carl Sandburg spent a lot of time as a reporter of Chicago News, and this may have influenced his poems. Through the works of Sandburg, we can see how Sandburg viewed the life in America, and the actions of men that live there. Carl Sandburg wrote the Chicago poems and in the 1930s, Sandburg continued his celebration of America with Mary Lincoln, Wife and Widow (1932), The People, Yes (1936), and the second part of his Lincoln biography, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (1939), for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
Background and historical context.
Sandburg fought in the Spanish-American War with the 6th Illinois Infantry, and participated in the invasion of Guánica, Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898.
Sandburg earned one Pulitzer Prize for his collection The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, and another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln: The War Years). He was awarded a Grammy Award in 1959 for Best Performance - Documentary Or Spoken Word (Other Than Comedy) for his recording of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait with the New York Philharmonic.

Poems:
Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind
by Carl Sandburg


The past is a bucket of ashes.

1

The woman named Tomorrow
sits with a hairpin in her teeth
and takes her time
and does her hair the way she wants it
and fastens at last the last braid and coil
and puts the hairpin where it belongs
and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?
My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.
What of it? Let the dead be dead.


2

The doors were cedar
and the panels strips of gold
and the girls were golden girls
and the panels read and the girls chanted:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.
Sheets of rain swish through on the wind
where the golden girls ran and the panels read:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.


3

It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, "Caw, caw,"
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, "Caw, caw,"
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.


4

The feet of the rats
scribble on the door sills;
the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigrees of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers
of the rats.

And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was.


It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.
Ship riveters talk with their feet
To the feet of floozies under the tables.
A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers:
"I got the blues.
I got the blues.
I got the blues."
And . . . as we said earlier:
The cartoonists weep in their beer.



There are no handles upon a language
Whereby men take hold of it
And mark it with signs for its remembrance.
It is a river, this language,
Once in a thousand years
Breaking a new course
Changing its way to the ocean.
It is mountain effluvia
Moving to valleys
And from nation to nation
Crossing borders and mixing.
Languages die like rivers.
Words wrapped round your tongue today
And broken to shape of thought
Between your teeth and lips speaking
Now and today
Shall be faded hieroglyphics
Ten thousand years from now.
Sing—and singing—remember
Your song dies and changes
And is not here to-morrow
Any more than the wind
Blowing ten thousand years ago.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/28

(55 fiction) The class joke

Tim, the quiet boy, sat down in his seat. A boy crept near and took his stationery, flinging them from the class. A boy pointed at Tim and made a joke, drawing a roar of laughter and more jeering. Finally after months, Tim understood. Soft laughter rang within his ears that none else could hear.

LA poem

Fast rode the knight by Stephen Crane
Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knIght,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.

"With spurs hot and reeking" is a metaphor, and is used to describe the eagerness of the knight to do battle, and the speed which he rode his horse.
In "ever waving an eager sword", personification is used, as the sword cannot be eager, but instead describes the excitement of the knight to rescue his lady and to fight, as well as his condition, and depicting a good attitude of the knight.
In "leaped from saddle to war", probably a a hyperbole, it is used to decribe the knight fighting upon his horse, thus from the saddle to war. This is probably used to discribe his enthusiasm, fighting upon his horse.
In "Men of steel flickered and gleam", a metaphor, the poet describes the soldiers against the knight as Men of steel, referring to men in armour, though Men of steel is probably used to illustrate the strength of the knights enemies, as well as the challenge the knight needs to fight, With the simile "flickered and gleam, like a riot of silver lights", to illustrate the good condition of the troops with the shining armour, and the number and strength the knight had to get through by using the riot of silver lights.
In "and the gold of the knight's good banner, Still waved on a castle wall.", is a symbol, which represents that the knight had won and was in a good condition, as the gold of the knight's good banner refers to the condition of the knight himself, and a conclusion can be drawn that the knight had won.
In "Blowing, staggering, bloody thing" a hyperbole, is used to depict how badly hurt the horse is, and left at the foot of castle wall is to show how it is forgotten when the knight meets his aims. This is used to exaggerate the fact that the knight ignores the horse even when it helped him to gain his aims.
The horse is also a symbol of the loss of the war, and how it is not taken care of when the knight reaches his lady.

The poem shows how the knight, or the master, cares only for meeting his aims and not for the welfare of those who helped the knight to achieve it, showing the knights selfish character. I like this poem as it describes the knight as a legend, a hero, but then shows how its horse is left abandoned after the knight reaches his goals. The knight, only concerned for his lady, let the horse die at the foot of the castle wall after it served it's purpose. Thus it shows that though the knight is the hero in the poem, he is not all that good, displaying characteristic flaws in his ignorance of the plight of his horse. The title of poem, Fast rode the knight, is quite an irony, whence the horse serves the knight faithfully and helps him achieve his goals, and yet is left abandoned once it serves its purpose.

Should you be rewarded for your efforts at school?

The first type of reward refers to awards such as medals, vouchers and so on given by the school to encourage students to put in more effort in school. Such rewards may be effective in promoting a young child's love of learning and generate interest to study, as well as a motivation to pay attention in class. When the students grow up, they can set goals in their learning journey, aiming to absorb more in class and to revise their homework. However, when they grow older, they should develop their own passion for learning, though awards would help them in goal setting. Even though studying is for the good of the child, some students may not find anything worthwhile when they are young, and thus having an award system is a good idea.
The second type of reward is the rewards that the parents give to a child, which may include electronic gaming devices or computer games. The idea is to motivate the child to study first then have fun later, while making sure that the child plays only after the exams and study hard for it so that they can enjoy their time afterwards. Even though this is a good option to make children study hard for the test, the children may be too young to resist the temptation to play, and since it has already been introduced, they might be addicted and lose concentration in their studies. Besides, they might have the passion to learn and are motivated to get high grades just so that they can play these games. When these children grow older, they may not be able to pick up as fast as the rest as they are addicted to playing games, and do not seek to set personal goals for themselves.
Thus, I think that awards for the effort put in at school would be useful to motivate as well as encourage students to put in effort in homework as well as pay attention in class, though the reward should not make the child stop working hard. Parents can award their children by taking them on fun or educational trips, as well as bring them to the library or let them start a hobby for them to devote their time in.

55 fiction

Tom stared at the music box resting upon the shelf.
Heart pumping slightly, he reached out a trembling finger towards the box.
A telephone rang from the living room. As he turned, the dappled sunlight from the window cast a soft ray upon the fine layer of dust upon Tom's forgotten gift.