Time flies...

In the blink of an eye, it is week 8 now, how fast time past. 8 weeks have past since the start of school and I am feeling that secondary two life is so different from secondary one. Secondary two life is much busier, with more ep3 training days which means more days of staying back and there are more programmes that are coming up after school which means another more days of staying back. And with the new grading system, it certainly hard to adapt to it and some students are complaining about it. Also, this year is a crucial year for secondary twos as what MSG we get this year means what courses and which class we would be going next year. Of course, everyone want to go to CSE and certainly want to choose a special programme so that means everyone would give in their best this year so that they could get to choose the programme they want next year. This year is going to be tough year. Going to work hard to go into SMTP or BSP.

Now let me talk about Chinese New Year now. Chinese New Year would be officially ending tomorrow which is Yuan Xia Festival, the 15th day of Chinese New Year. On Yuan XinaFestival, it would be a day where people would solve puzzles on lanterns and eat glutinous rice ball and get their families united in this joyful atmosphere. There is this belief where Yuan Xia Festival means celebrating and cultivating positive relationship between people, families, nature and the higher beings they believed were responsible for bringing the light each year. Tomorrow, there would also be a full moon and there would be alot of lanterns hang up for people to appreaciate. So tomorrow is the day where people would enjoy the last day of Chinese New Year and this would be the day where people could enjoy before going back to sowing seeds in their field in the ancient times. So enjoy the last day of Chinese New Year under the full moon and enjoyed the scenery! (:

Should smoking be prohibited totally in coffee shops?

Nowadays, the government has been trying to reduce the amount of people smoking as smoking is not good to one's health and could cause lung cancer and other diseases. Some of the methods that the government had used were restricting smokers from smokeing at air-conditioned places like shopping malls and they could only smoke at areas that have the signs that allow smokers to smoke. Some of these areas include coffee shops where there is a small area for smokers to smoke and also some fast food restaurants like macdonald that has both tables outside and inside the restaurant so the outside tables would allowed smokers to smoke.

Smoking are the biggest killers in the world and many people died due to smoking than due to accidents. Smokers can die 10 years before what they are suppose to live if they did not smoke. Back to the topic on whether should coffee shops be smoke free totally. To me, I think that smoking should not be prohibited totally in coffee shops now but could instead gradually restrict the places whereby the smokers can do their smoking. By doing so, the smokers then can slowly get use to the fact that the government wanted them to quit their habit of smoking and is slowly decreasing the number of areas for smokers. The smokers would then try to curb their habit of smoking since there isn't alot of place for them to smoke and if they wanted to smoke, it would be very inconvenient of them to do so. Slowly by slowly, I think that the number of smokers would eventually decreased until left with a minority that would not give up smoking habits so easily, so by then, there would be only 1 out of 100 people smoking.

However, if the coffee shops were to be make smoke free totally now, the coffee shop owners would lose alot of business as the usual customers who go there to have a cup of coffee or tea while smoking would not go to the coffee shops anymore since smoking is prohibited there. And these customers are the majority who would go there for a drink before their work or are taxi drivers stopping there for a rest.

In conclusion, smoking cannot be prohibited completely in coffee shops as there are still this minority in the society which could not be get rid of. But the amout of space for the smokers would have decreased significantly and this would be at least an improvement seen from last previous years.

It's the process that matters

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

This is the Olympics Creed by Pierre de Coubertin who got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. This is somewhat alike to an ancient Chinese proveb, "The journey is the reward." I fully agree with what the proverb and the Olympics Creed as the most important thing is the journey and not the result. Why is the most important thing is the journey and not the result?

That is because through the journey, you will learn alot of things that may teach you moral values which is very important for your whole entire life. The most common moral value that would be learn is perseverance as usually in the process of doing something, you would always encounter problems that are difficult to solve or vexing to you, making you feel as though you want to give up. With what you learn during your journey, your result would not matter much anymore. No matter if you win or lose, it could not be as important as the reward you gain from your journey which could benefit you for the rest of your life while the winning only give you a temporary sense of satisfaction and losing would make you grieve. Why cry over spilled milk when you could think about what you have learn and how you could apply it in your life?

I would also like to say to everyone, move on in life and not look back at what wrong you have done cause it is not going to help. To those who have not done so well last year, focus on this year and work hard, with hard work and determination, it would get you to your goal. (:

Friends

What are friends? Friends to me are those who support me no matter under what circumstances, bad or good. They care for you when you are down and will always have a listening ear for you and a shoulder to cry on. They will always welcome your company and shows loyalty towards, often to the point of altruism. They will give you advice on what is best for you, share with you the sweetness of success and the bitterness of hardship they or you face. They would be honest with you when in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults which you did not see.

You will meet friends throughout your life, during your preschool years, your schooling years from primary to university and when you are working. Some of them will forget who you are after a few years while some of them will still remember vividly about you or have a vague idea who you are. Some people want to be your friends with a motive in mind, it could be because you are rich or have authority and they want to gain something from you or want to use you as a tool to get something better for themselves. Then, they would try to dump you off or pretend not to know you. While some people really want to be friends with you cause you make them happy when they are sad. These people do not have any motive and would help you when you are in trouble.

Friends you make in preschool would probably forget about you when all of you went to different primary schools. Friends in primary school would not bother to greet even if they know you when you all meet, except for some whom you are good friends with. However, friends in secondary school would be the friends that would help you when you met with troubles during the time when you work. They would probably company you through your junior college time and university too. These would be the time when you have alot of troubles in your life, about your relationship with your parents, your love affair, and other troubles. They would somehow be interlink with each other and come to you at the same time, this is the time when you would need a really good friend to help you, giving you advice on what is best for you. So it is best to make a good friend during your secondary school years. They would be more mature and you could tell them your troubles, instead of keeping it to yourself and by tellling them, you would feel better.

So I would end off this blog post by telling everyone to treasure your friendship with your good friends and make them last as long as possible for when your family is not there for you, you could always turn to your good friends. =)