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Friday, June 25, 2010
i've spent a good deal of time perusing a number of tok and wlit essays. many more wlit essays, in fact- almost ten now. tok essays, in my opinion, are way more fun to read. not that i am always a big help- sometimes i just feel so bored/deadened after reading a few paragraphs or so due to a lack of interest in the subject matter.
i read through a tok essay last night. the friend who'd written this is a close one- i've known him for almost six years now, and although we don't see each other often, there is that recognition of familiarity and chumminess whenever we converse with each other. something you don't always get with people you haven't been too long around with. i'm sure some of you would know what i mean- that bond that keeps you and old friends together, even though they're far away and you don't see them often/anymore. but you still feel closer to them than your current peers. i suddenly don't feel like discussing my friend's tok essay- it gets a bit personal some way through, actually.
why are people having so much trouble with TOK, and for that matter, world lit? looking at world lit- it isn't much of a problem with finding ideas, organization of points and writing it out; the approaches to those are pretty much clear to everyone, and proof of that is in the essays i've read. but what most of us lack- i feel- is vocab. repeated, uninteresting words and phrases that seem to beg MARK ME DOWN I HAVE A LOUSY VOCAB. even i struggle not to iterate the similar ideas in the same wording. what is the problem here?
reading. everyoneeeee mustttt readdddd moreeeeeeeeeeee. the logic is plain- how do you expand your vocab if you don't read? look at the disparity between my english and chinese vocab. i read tons of english books in childhood- and never a chinese one by choice at all. the result was obvious. my english fared far, far better than my chinese in school. i barely did english revision exercises- grammar, phrasing and sentence structure all comes naturally after you keep seeing them in books. one reason why my chinese compos suffered so badly- my tendency to stick to english-style writing kept recurring and i never did well for them.
the solution? i don't think it's too late. READ. fiction is a great place to start, and is chock full of genres- fantasy, crime, action thrillers and so on. jeffrey deaver writes great forensic science/crime thrillers. much more interesting than james patterson in my opinion. the alex rider series is a must read. matthew reilly is king of action. philosophical novels can be enlightening- although i've only covered ayn rand's, on objectivism. i don't know about romance novels. but the time traveler's wife by audrey niffenegger (is that how you spell it?) was refreshing, and i enjoyed that very much. girls would probably want to go for jodi picoult's books- they seem to have a good reputation with the fairer sex. i don't think i've read enough- i wish i'd spent more time reading when i was young. sigh. curse the computer.
if you can't bring yourself to bring books- WIKIPEDIA. honestly, the best site ever. really. sigh. it's good beyond words. it's also addictive, since multiple words in a paragraph are usually hyperlinked. that means almost a hundred links? on especially long pages. and that temptation to just click another link and move on...it's great. i started doing that in sec 3, and have never looked back since. and am still a guilty victim of that- there are about six tabs of wikipedia open in my browser now. hmm. wikipedia! (: but seriously, readddd. i know someone who has a personal library of 8000 books.
on a side note, thank goodness for internet streaming sites. tonight, portugal plays brazil. i've only caught one world cup match so far- portugal vs north korea. actually i only got on after half-time, when the score was 1-0 to portugal. the second half, however, was worth it. i watched as portugal scored...and scored...and scored...and scored...and scored. and scored again to make it 7-0. i was going wild, although that sounds silly :P haha but i couldn't believe my eyes. that was a good match...for portugal. execution awaits their opponents when they step back into dprk. i did miss an interesting remark by the commentator in the first half, apparently:
6/21/2010 8:03:06 PM (friend) stewart portugal
6/21/2010 8:03:07 PM (friend) stewart lol
6/21/2010 8:03:09 PM (friend) stewart im rooting
6/21/2010 8:03:11 PM (friend) stewart for nkorea
6/21/2010 8:03:48 PM (friend) stewart LOl
6/21/2010 8:03:51 PM (friend) stewart the commentator
6/21/2010 8:04:01 PM (friend) stewart when he saw nkorea coach
6/21/2010 8:04:12 PM (friend) stewart "i wonder if the rain is affecting his secret communication device"
i started revision last saturday, and it was lackluster. i did a bit of bio here and there, mostly just pottering around and taking every opportunity to msn or watch a movie.
i don't think i'll finish revising the syllabuses on time. and for chem Option A- i will bomb it at this rate. no idea what it's about at all. blame my inability to learn during lessons or lectures. i started on econs last night- it's going fairly well. i'm giving microecons a miss, though- there is just no time at all. i began chem on tuesday- and am still on last year's work. organic chem will be a killer. bio has third priority behind these two subjects- it happens to be one which i am more gifted in. same goes for english- i shall only begin preparation for paper 2 the day before the exam. as for math- my revision for it begins next week, on friday.
i've never really found the time to sit down and think about my future career choices. maybe now would be apropos- that'd give me some motivation to study. no actually, not really. i'm still lazy to wonder about them. let's see: medicine and teaching. that's the only two i've got in mind as of now.
why am i so lazy.
i watched Just like heaven yesterday. it enjoyed it far more than i'd expected- and teared near the end. that was a good movie.
1:32 AM
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