Joshan the not so Great

Tantrums, Tantrums

When I was in year 6 in my old school we had a presentation for the whole school to see. We all did a wonderful piece of art and we left pieces of paper for people to comment on our artwork. My best friend Joshua had done the best picture in the whole year so, naturally his artwork got a lot of comments. One 6 year old who was not so great at spelling wrote a few scribbles that looked something like "Good Job Joshan" .

Then everyone in the year started calling Joshua "Joshan", the name was easy to remember and quite catchy we thought, we all liked it except for Joshua. I'm sorry to say that I was one of the people who were most actively involved in getting others to call him Joshan.
Joshua liked it for a while but it must have become tiresome for him as he soon began to complain. We still called him Joshan despite his pleas and this appeared to annoy him a lot, we thought this was funny as Joshua threw great tantrums.

I'm not sure how much Joshua was hurt by this. He seemed to maintain healthy self-esteem throughout this period. Maybe it just annoyed him and was just another thing that he faced in life. He resolved to not answer to the name Joshan, but this was impossible as no-one called him Joshua or by his preferred nicknames Joe and Josh.I would liken it to homework: something that you don't really like but you have to put up with.

 This was still going on as I left my school to come to ISKL and I therefore do not know how this situation developed following my departure for KL. I hope that these developments played out to Joshua's advantage and that he is no longer troubled by such behaviour. I have apologised to Joshua previously and still regret my actions.

Today, on reflection, I would definitely stop calling someone by a disliked nickname once they had told me to stop. I would also strive to come up with a nickname which I, and most importantly they, liked. I would also try to stop other people from calling a person in this manner.
http://static.becomegorgeous.com/img/articles/how_to_deal_with_temper_tantrums.jpg
2 Goals that help everyone:

1. I will try to be openly friendly with everyone I meet.
2. I shall find out how to say a few words of Korean and other frequently used languages at school, so I can make others feel welcome and surprise them.

This is
AlexK
Signing out

"There is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing around with boats"

Times I showed courage hmmmm come back to me in 1/2 hour.
(1/2 hour later)

I think I've got it. This is the time I showed courage. My parents had decided to send me sailing on the lake in Canberra. I thought that this would be rather fun, sailing around the lake all day. Now the first thing the people at Canberra Yacht Club did was demonstrate how to put together a type of boat known as a topper. The topper is a very small boat as demonstrated by this photograph.
So,in the morning us beginners we were paired up amongst ourselves. My partner was a girl who didn't seem to be the kind of person who was there because she wanted to be she seemed to be the kind of person whose brother was doing it and her parents sent her there as well. Anyway, in the morning we went sailing around the bay that the yacht club owned. The wind was apparently good and at times our boat went fast.
In the afternoon:

The wind had picked up at it was blowing extremely fast for this lake. We got into our toppers and set out now the set out of the bay.The bay is an oval shape on the southern side of the lake it is about 200m. East to west and 100m. North to south. On the north side there is an opening to the rest of the lake which boats sail through to reach the rest of the lake. We sailed to the opening and alas, catastrophe struck the boat capsized and we were thrown out of the boat boat fast as lightning, even though lightning is bad near lakes.

As we fell into the water she hit her leg on something and began screaming!! We were wearing life-jackets so we floated but the water was still freezing cold the movement of the water brought out and back into the water again and again. The instructors came over and pulled her out of the water but I had to stay in I had to turn the boat over so I could continue sailing it was viewed as a training exercise. The boat was slippery as I tried to tip it over but eventually it became obvious that this was futile.
 The instructors were just about to throw one of their own in when BANG the boat turtled or in other terms tipped over completely. The mast was vertical pointing straight down. My only hope to get it back upright was the centreboard, the board coming out of the bottom that is inserted as you launch your boat that is there for balance. I grabbed the centreboard bt my numb, cold fingers couldn't hold on it slipped back through the hole through which I had put it minutes earlier. To cut a long story short the instructor managed to pull the boat back the right way up and I was brought inside and spent the rest of the day huddled up in a towel. The winds had been judged to dangerous for beginners and everyone was brought inside.

This experience changed my perspective on sailing I now viewed instead of a fun recreational activity but as a game me against the lake trying not to fall in gradually I fell in less and less and now I rarely ever do. Sailing is now easily my favourite sport and I love sailing.

This is
AlexK
Signing out

Hominids, Art, Caves and Me

This activity was interesting and relevant to the current unit of inquiry. Acting as social scientists we "uncovered" "artifacts" that were linked to prehistoric times. All of these "artifacts" had some connection to art whether it be a painting, sculpture or something ornamental they all had something to do with art. I found this activity both interesting and enjoyable.

How did early humans use art to express their prehistoric culture?

These paintings such as the one to your right demonstrate that not only did these people have enough time to hunt and gather for food they had enough free time to express themselves and their culture both religious and otherwise through art.
There are a few possible explanations as to why they painted animals instead of say themselves. The first is that these animals were extremely important to them as a culture, tribe and perhaps even person.
As they provided food to survive on as well as fur which could be used for clothing and protective screening.

Another explanation is that these Hominids were painting the sky. Now you might say: "Those aren't clouds, they're bulls and horses". Some scientists believe that they were painting the constellations in the night sky. A certain cave has paintings of bulls of which the layout is almost identical to that of the constellations in the night sky.
All in all this shows that the early humans were efficient enough to spare time to use at their own leisure. So they might not have been Picasso but they were still artistically creative back then.

This is
AlexK
Signing out

Me? A Social Scientist, Really??!!

                                           Thai mural: I remember this one it has my favourite
                                           character Hanuman the White Monkey.

                                                                  The Parthenon

If I were to become a social scientist that is, either a historian, archaeologist or a geographer my preference would be to become a historian. This appeals to me because I love history much more then I will ever like maps or digging in the dirt.This is because even as a young child I was interested history because my mum worked at a Thai museum, I would just walk around the museum (it was a converted temple) staring at murals of the legend Ramakien. I also just love leafing through books and looking through them as a window into the life and culture of someone long dead. Ever since I started to read, I read about history with my mother, even now one of my favourite books is " A Little History of the World " by Ernst Gombrich. Last but not least I would love to be a historian so that I could escape this sometimes horrible reality and go to the world of the of the Ancient Greeks where there was no man called Glenn Beck with a TV show.
     sacredsites.com                                                     This is

    thailandsworld.com                                                 AlexK

                                                                                  Signing out

Who am I

I'm Alexander and I'm from Australia. I live in Kuala Lumpur
 in Malaysia with my mum, dad and my dog. I have spent most
of my life away from my home in Canberra, Australia.

The last three books I have read are "The Dragon Heir" by
Cinda Williams Chima and it is the third book in a series of which the
second is "The Wizard Heir" another book I have just read. These books
are within the fantasy genre and are about wizards and such. Last but not least
is "Sir Thursday" by Garth Nix another fantasy book that mostly takes place
in the world of The House which is populated by Denizens and Nithlings.

The last movie I saw was SALT an action movie with Angelie Jolie and
Liev Schreiber. It has a large amount of fight scenes and it is about Russian
spies implanted into The United States of America until "Day X" when they would do
everything they could to destroy the USA.  

My academic goal for this year in is to do well and enjoy learning
and when my grades are displayed to be more than pleased with them.

As I am new to my current school my social goal for this year is
just to make enough friends to be able to enjoy myself at this school.

If there was a prize for my favourite and most valued vacation memory it
would be a tie between New Year in Paris and a cruise on Halong Bay in Vietnam.

These are the first five adjectives that come to mind when I think of myself:

1. Smart
2. Politically aware
3. Bookish
4. Avid
5. Awesome 

This is
AlexK,
Signing out