Farewell cruel world!! sort of

Dear Asher

I am no longer in the community. I have decided to leave this place and try my luck Elsewhere.

You will probably not understand the things I am about to describe, but perhaps in the future, once the community recovers from the release of my memories, you will.

I had to leave the community for several reasons, the first of which is this: feelings. You probably know what feelings are from your evening feelings time. But the feelings you talk about during this time - happiness, anger and sadness - to name a few, have not really been felt in this community for a long time. You ask though:

“What about the things we talk about during feelings time?

You and the rest of the community have not experienced, not felt, real sadness in a long time. The sadness you talk about leaves after an hour or two. Real sadness is something so huge that it may take weeks, months or even years to finally shrug off. It is this lack of real emotion which is one of the reasons for which I have decided to leave.

Another perhaps more fundamental reason is the absence of the feeling love. If you ask another person about love they will tell you it’s a term that is no longer in use, and that it’s meaningless. If you have felt love though, as I have and you soon will too, then you will know that is one of the most meaningful and special things in the entire world. A memory that will be coming to you soon is that of a group of people, young and old, sitting together. As you look at them you will come to feel a sort of warm feeling that feels wonderful. It’s hard to explain in words but once you feel it you will know it, and you will feel a unique and special sensation, that will consume your entire being. That, my friend, is love

The last - but not least - reason is the eternal sameness in this world. Since I became receiver of memory I have seen the world in a different way. I have seen something known as colour, and it‘s truly amazing. It is hard to describe to someone what colour is without them seeing it, but in the world you live in everything is the same. The weather, the topography and the colours, they’re all the same. This sameness drives me insane and that’s another significant factor that led me to the decision that I had to leave. I have left in search of a place in which everything is not the same, where there are distinctions and differences, where there will be a diversity which stimulates one’s heart and mind.

You will soon get a memory in which you are on some sort of wooden contraption, and you are accelerating down a hill at a speed so fast it is both exhilarating and terrifying. Of course you don’t know the word hill because all hills were razed years ago by our forefathers. This is different to the world that you currently live in, and all this sameness that keeps any of that from happening is why I want to go. Once I have found a place with contrasts I will feel happier than I ever did in the community. I will feel for the first time in my life, happy.

From Jonas

This is

AlexK

Signing out

Freedom, Love

Gabriel's breathing was even and deep. Jonas liked having him there, though he felt guilty about the secret. Each night he gave memories to Gabriel: memories of boat rides and picnics in the sun; memories of soft rainfall against windowpanes; memories of dancing bare-footed on a damp lawn.

"Gabe?"

The new child stirred slightly in his sleep, Jonas looked over at him.

"There could be love" Jonas whispered.

The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away"

This is a part of the book the giver. I have to read the above quote and relate it to choice and freedom.

In this passage Jonas says that there could be love in this world. I think this is a statement that if it came true would require some freedom. Freedom to love who ever you want and to chose to love them if you so wish. Love is an emotion that as I have said before can make those who are expeiriencing it do irrational things that if they thought about, they would not want to do. There isa choice in wanting to do these things, and you must first have the freedom to love before you can have the choice to do these things.

In this passage Jonas also throws away the pill for the first time. The pill is something that stops Jonas from having wet dreams and lust, and perhaps even love. With the choice to throw these pills away Jonas is taking a choice for love, and therefore a choice for freedom. The things called freedom and choice though huge and cumbersome concepts can be linked through the statement "freedom of choice". Jonas appears to have achieved this freedom in his own head in a very small way, it seems he has the freedom to chose to disregard the rules and stop taking the pill. In this sate of mind Jonas is exactly what he shouldn't be in this world.

This is what these words tell me about freedom, choice and Jonas.

This is

AlexK

Signing out

Comments

I commented on Akira's and Kathleen's.

Choices, Consequences

I have to write another post about the giver, this time about something that the giver said. He said that people in this world would find it frightening to make teir own decisions. The question is:

Why would peopel find it frightening to amke choices?

I personally find making decisions scary even though I've made them before, unlike those in this book. I always find it hard to make decisions as I am always afraid that if I make the wrong one then that the consequences will be horrible and I'll have to live with them for a while. If I make the wrong choice and I bear the repercussions then I can live with myself as I am the one to suffer. However if someone else suffers the I would feel abosolutely awful, as through my mistake someone else would have to endure something because of my own mistake. I don't know about you but I would feel horrible if I did that to someone, as I have before.

It's a different case with the people of Jonas' community as they have never made a large decision in their life so they would be scared of the concept of a choice. Choices as a thing are pretty scary themselves as generally you have to make one. If your stuck then eventually the pressure builds up as you get closer to the day that you must make your final decision. Once you make it there are tow possible thoughts that could be going through your head. The first one: wow, glad thats over, no point in regretting it, it's all over. The other: no, no, I should have chosen the other, I can still change! NO don't do that, you're just being indecisive. These people have never been through this thought process and it will definitely scare them as it has scared many others before.

We are all afraid of something different, in their case it will be choices this added with the

pressure I have talked about above is enough to bring anyone to their knees. I agree with giver prediction that if they made choices they would be scared.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff177/salviaforme/album2/monitorthoughts-4.jpg

http://cartoonface.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/scared-cartoon-emotion.jpg

This is

AlexK

Signing out

The Taker

I was told by my teacher to create a blogpost about the book that we are currently reading. The book in question is "The Giver" by Lois lowry, this book is about a boy called Jonas who lives in a place known as the community. The commuinty is run by an authoritarian government that controls it's people, chosing their jobs, their forms of expression, when they are born and when they die. I was asked a question about the book which I must answer in this post:

Why is interdependence fostered in the community?

In a word I think interdependece is fostered in the community for control. If the people all think the same then they are easier to control like sheep. If the people all dependon each other then when one falls they all do leading to a want for the status quo to remain the same. It is obvious throughout the book that all the people must rely on each other: when asher comes in late he is told that he has hindered the learning process and must apologise. If the learning process requires all the students to be present then if one is gone then the system falls. When they Are five they are givenjackets that require other people to do them up creating a trade off I'll do yours if you do mine. This mentality is fostered throughout the lives of all the citizens.

In the later parts of this book the main character is told by the giver
about freedom and love and other things that we take for granted
today but the people in this book have never heard of. Throughout the past years the only person to feel this way was the giver, and he was an individual unable to influence the masses. He fostering of this interdepndence also leads to a sort of go with the flow thinking process in which any independent though is
immediately thought of as not best for the community and purely
individual. It is this sort of independent thinking that the committee
hopes to crush if somewhat unknowingly.

Everyone in this world is deeply mislead, and unfortunately this is where I must end.

This is

AlexK

Signing Out

Hatshepsut Thingamajiggy

This is a presentation that my friend and I made about the egyptian pharoah Hatshepsut, who was actually a woman. She did a lot of cool building projects and actually started trade but you can judge for yourself.

Oh, by the way I'm the one with the slight british accent, the one who speaks second.

This is

AlexK

Signing out

No Shirts and Bathtub Racing while Public Speaking

I'm going to talk about my city connections presentation. I did a presentation discussing the geographic location of Singapore and how this contributed to the success of the city. According to my teacher the success of different peoples varies on where they settled. So, my presentation was about how Singapore the island helped Singapore the city.

I think that I performed well on my presentation, specifically on the actual slideshow, people

complimented on the way that I had layed out my slides and that my graphics were very helpful. They also liked the fact that I had not included much information in my slides, giving away the info in the speech accompaniment. Many people said that they enjoyed my speech, and that it was inspiring watching me talk; albeit about Singapore. I personally thought that the slides were better, as they set the foundation of my entire presentation. I hadn't prepared for this talk and relied entirely on the slides to know what to talk about. Also, I used the graphics on the slides as a basis for a lot of my large of my large hand movements, which apparently people love (that was a really bad add-on).

What would I improve for future presentations/projects?

I got full score, sooooo, not much (is that bad grammar?). I thought that my

presentation/speech was one of the worst I've ever done, but other people - as I have said above - found it very good and even inspiring. Next time I might do a little planning for my speech, just a few points, nothing much. I also ad libbed a bit during the speech, mentioning worthless facts such as the banning of patterned shirts, which had nothing to do with anything.

3) What did I learn from my preparation in addition to the presentations of others?

I learnt from my own presentation that Singapore's location wasn't just key because of the fact that it was central, but also because of the trade winds, which came past Singapore. I learnt from Lily's presentation that two of

the largest industries in Toronto are publishing and meat packing, I learnt from Nick that Nanaimo is on an island in Southwest Canada and is the best place in the world to go bathtub racing. I learnt from PJ that the city of Aberdeen is also known as the Granite City, Allison told me that the New Ulm Fire Department was originally known as the New Ulm Fire Company (no offence, but to me that sounds like they started fires).

Yes, there is a bathtub in that boat

What was my analysis of my performance?

My teacher's analysis was 40/40 but mine is definitely different. I'll put it this way, if 10 was for graphics, 20 for info and 10 presentation I'd give myself the following score:

Graphics 9/10

One of my pictures was of a man's head and another was a graph in which all the sections looked the same.

Information 19/20

I think I did well but I should have mentioned Changi airport

Presentation 8/10

While I spoke with a good clear voice I felt a bit awkward doing it and I rambled on a bit.

Final score 36/40=90%= A

Thats it.

If you want to see the actual presentation click on the link below.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0ByJszGDqzS6GMGQ5MGRhNDEtYzc0Yi00M

TQxLThhYzktN2IzNDU3OTk5ZmY3&hl=en&authkey=CPjWwvMB

Dont click on these ones.

Seriously.

They are boring

Seriously.

You don't want to.

Fine. Do it. I don't care.

http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/speaking-at-podium1.jpg

http://www.agrosalmon.com/images/photos_med/bathtub-race-2010-05-1088.jpg

http://oldnavy.gap.com/Asset_Archive/ONWeb/Assets/Product/750/750974/big/on750974-00vliv01.jpg

This is

AlexK

Signing out