Edison's Blog

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:27:00 +0000

Here is the new link to my website involving comics. Hope you enjoy it.

www.limkiatcomicals.blogspot.com

Going to Hong Kong (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:35:00 +0000

There is always that terrible hassle when going overseas. Whether it is Malaysia, England, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong or Afghanistan, people will always be eternally worrying what to bring there. Should they bring sunblock, or snacks, or a supply of hot chocolate? Then, there will always be the money exchanging that goes on. Besides the money that they keep in their budget, there will always be some extra 'emergency' money. Of course, it is always good to be safe, but on top of the emergency money, they will also bring some of their local money as 'emergency emergency' money, just in case their shopping brings their budget to an all-time low. This was one of the things that annoyed me. However, I suppose I must not complain, the supply of hot chocolate did come in useful.

Another thing that annoys me is the number of photos taken throughout the trip. Supposedly photos are there as memories, but I have doubts that I want to know what I ate for breakfastbts whether I want to remember what I had for breakfast:

Then, a second photo is taken:

Then a third one:
Sometimes they are boring...and to think that we never took a picture of the airport!

Waiting time was also fairly boring. It took 1 hour for all the checking in, immigration, and so on so forth to be done. The plane that we flew on was okay. It was the Singapore Airlines, each seat equipped with a television, that could be used for watching television, listening to radio channels, or gaming. It also came in with catering. This was probably the part that I liked least. While the entertainment was okay, the food was probably something like 3/10. I suppose that it was because the food was stored inside the plane in a freezer for a long time. Hopefully, the food that I ate had not expired yet.

After 3 hours we finally reached Hong Kong. We got lost a number of times trying to look for a taxi ride, but we finally found one in the end. There, my parents chatted quite a bit with the taxi driver about the life in Hong Kong before entering the hotel. My mother said that she would give a recommendation to the taxi driver because of his friendliness. (She has not done that yet) Anyway, we were surprised to find that there was a queue along the hotel check-in counter. It was probably the longest one we seen. In our past experiences, hotel queues were something like 3cm long. it probably took a whole half-hour to get our room card.

Guess what we did after that:

Angry Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:45:00 +0000

Almost everybody knows Angry Birds. It is currently rated on the Number 1 app and almost everyone who plays it ends up loving it.

Honestly, Angry Birds has come a long way. 75 million people play it everyday. Altogether, users spend over 200 million minutes wasting their life away playing Angry Birds. It has taken over 50 million dollars, making over 500 times profit (do the maths yourself). Celebrities including Justin Bieber and David Cameron say they are fans.

So how did this wondorous game start out?

Well, you probably noticed that on the introduction pages there is one that says 'Rovio'. Well, this might come to your great surprise, but Rovio is the creator of Angry Birds! What a shock! No one would have guessed that.

Anyway, Rovio (which is bonfire in Finnish) was founded by Niklas Hed, and co-founded by Vesterbacka and Mikael in 2003 with 50 employees. But in 2009, that number had dropped to 12, and Rovio was close to bankruptcy, what's more, one of the co-founders Mikael, had quit, due to a conflict with his father, Kaj. They soon realised that they had to create their own sensational game (they were working for other companies for hire), but they had no ways of distribution and marketing.

One day Niklas said to Kaj that they needed Mikael. It tooke a while, Kaj eventually agreed. Suddenly, everything shot up for Rovio, the iphone was created and the App-Store emerged. This had quickly solved their distribution problem as there was now a common market for apps. Niklas said," The iphone opened up the whole world, you had one contact and worldwide distribution." But even after that, they still needed a sensational game.

Rovio had already created 51 other moderately sucessful games before Angry Birds, but they knew that none of them could save the company. They needed a bestseller, something that would go beyond the normal amount of money for an ordinary app. They knew if that they could conquer the app store, they could move on to smartphones, then PC, console and more. They had to create the perfect game, and continue adding sequels to it. Niklas himself admits, "We thought we needed to do 10 to 15 titles before we got the right one.

But it turned out, they had no need to wait for a dozen failed apps to get a bestseller, because the next day, Jaakko Iisalo, an employee who had worked for Rovio for 6 years came to Mikael and showed him a screenshot of very angry, very colourful birds moving towards a pile of multi-coloured blocks. Mikael started to wonder what the birds were doing, and why they were so angry doing it. "For such simple characters, they made us think so much." he said,"There was some magic to it."

At the start, the game was completely different from what it is now. There was a colourful fortress with different colours (example. red. blue.) and birds that matched the colours. Tap the block and the similar coloured bird would go out to destroy it. You would collect birds to keep in your own flock and eggs were used as power-ups. After a while, they decided on flinging the birds towards the fortress, but there was nothing to shoot it from, instead you threw the birds across the screen with your fingers, and people would be greatly confused at what to do with the feathered fowl staring angrily at them.

Today's Angry Birds game uses a giant slingshot to shoot birds across the screen towards fortresses holding sickly green pigs. Their demand has hit more than 7 times of a normal app, and they have expanded Angry Birds to PC, smartphones, tablets, and now they have plans to make a televsion series, a movie, and Facebook version of Angry Birds

Even then, they didn't stop. Around Janurary 2011, they announced thay they would be partnering with the US movie Rio in creating a new angry birds game. It would be called Angry Birds Rio and it would be based in the land Rio, where the angry birds would have to save other birds from the animal smugglers. The pigs would be replaced with monkeys, and they would introduce boss fights to angry birds.

So for Angry Birds, it has been a very long journey. And it won't end here. "It'll be like Disney 2.0" said Mikael. "Except instead of having to wait years to gain recognition, we've done it in a year." However, Angry Birds could fall much, much faster. "In a hundred years, we would still likely be talking about Disney, but not Angry Birds" said McQuivey. So how long will Rovio's Angry Birds survive until it goes out? The modern world is extremely risky, after all, with all the companies racing to get their products out."I'm super paranoid," says Niklas. "I feel at the moment we are walking, we should be running." Michael quickly checks him, "We are not trying to take over the world in one giant leap."

a simple one

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:07:00 +0000

Hello and to all fathers, grandfathers, uncles, grandfather's unlces, uncle's grandfathers, father's cousions, distant niece's uncles thrice removed. etc Happy Fathers Day. Happy Father's Day is a day of passison and love for together with your father. Of course, does that mean, you have to search your family tree for your great aunt's cousion's son and visit him? Er...well no. Father's Day is a day for fathers around the world to celebrate being fathers and just spend some time with their sons and daughters. But the big question remains 'What is Father's Day?' To answer that question, it is time we move back to June 19 1910 when Mother's day was recently created. However, there was no Father's day yet and for some reason, nobody wanted to add it in, well, nobody except Sonora Smart Dodd. And it is thanks to her that Fathers could be reconginised with their own day. After hearing about the newly created Mother's Day, she strongly felt that fathers should have their own day, because of her father, William Smart, who was left to take care of the family after his wife died giving birth to the sixth child of the family. From then on, Father's Day was spread around the world. With the support of YWCA and YMCA, the day was started on June 19, the birthday of her father, where they went around carrying gifts to ill fathers while their children looked jealously. Of course, there had to be someone against the idea but as usual I will not go into the details, what I will mention to help you get a rough idea is that it includes laughing at calenders, joke making newspapers and mindless promotions. In the end, Father's day was recognised by the government, but the question remains 'What is Father's Day?' 'What is Father's Day?' What is Father's Day?' Sorry for the typo error, there seems to be some sort of binary virus hacking into the blog creating echoes. -creating echoes- -creating echoes-. Oi! I'm calling the Computer Security System. Sorry, for the disruptions, but they should arrive any moment now, so what is father's day? Well, Father's day means different things. To some, Father's day might be time to reconnect with the father. To others Father's day may be to honour fathers everywhere. Like our friend Sonora Smarts, Father's day can be to tell how much you appreciate your father or just something to say that you want to make up for the times you misjudged or blamed them. For me, these are my two reasons and daddy, if you are reading this, I want you to know that I love you and I want to say sorry for all the times I misjudged you.

Battle English

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:48:00 +0000

I am going to write a blog... there I've written it haven't I, so there. I guess I should write something more blog-ish but I am not in the mood.

Apparently, however if I don't write the blog, something horrible will happen. It was so horrible I immediately surrendered waving a white hankerchief. For all curious people, this horrible thing includes dangerous mines, computer games, and 20 or more sharpeners so you can pretty much guess what happened.

So in the end I decided to write about 'BATTLE ENGLISH', an OK game I created (which is slightly lower than average) Anyway I am going to write about my trip about showcasing my game in the 'LANGUAGE ARTS FESTIVAL' Looks pretty cool dosen't it, well I pretty much hoped that it would be a great place, but it just turned out to be a complete, utter girl school. Aw, man, I was hoping an air conditioned, orchestra shaped, collesum, I reminded myself to talk to my imaginary agent about this.

It was hot, sweaty, and it was filled with people. Seriously, people come every minute, and it took a while for us to find each other and collect our thoughts. Our? We? Oh, yeah, I forgot, those were part of my Battle English team, Jian Cheng and Andres. Don't ask me why, but nobody seemed to want Jian Cheng, and Andres and I were just hanging around waiting for money to fall from the sky so in the end we got stuck together. (BUT I try not to think about it)

So we started the day in a happy tone by deciding who got the box with the pink cards, and then suddenly...drum roll...kerching!...Our first Battle English player came. We started teaching them how to play, demostrating and collecting MILO at the same time, then we decided we could not do it, so we split the duties up. The day continued on like that, and then when it was time to come home. We got a certificate and a 20 dollars Borders Book Vouchers. I argued that the something at the end of the handwritten voucher looked like a 1 but in the end I was outargued. We decided to split the boxes into 3, so that everyone gets their fair share. (Mind you, I meant that we gave each person 1 box, we did not split each box into 3) So, after I came home and talked to my imaginary agent. I was going to end the blog with "I wish I could go there again" which I always do, but it turns out I can't so I instead I will end with " I hope I can sell Battle English and make some profit soon...bwa ha ha ha ha....ha ha."

Mind Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:21:00 +0000

Another day, another page of the textbook, after a while it could get a bit tedious. Thankfully, we decided to go to mind cafe at Funan centre.

It all started with a satisfying bowl of steamboat, and then we headed down to the second floor, where Mind Cafe was. The occupants of Mind Cafe were all playing board games.We took a table near the board games. But I guess that every table is near the board games. After started settling down and ordering our food and drinks, we picked out a card game, monopoly cards. In the end, we decided that altogether GQ (Game Quotient) of 15 was not enough to comprehend the game, we switched to something simpler, Scrabble.

Soon everyone were hurling pieces, chewing the board, and stealing letters from each other. (OK, so I made that up) It turns out that although Scrabble only needs a total GQ of 3 but we lost a whole GQ point thinking of words. Once the game started doing some serious brain damage, we switched to a game without any lost of brain cells, Slapegories.

The idea was that you had a letter and a topic and you had to make something about the topic that started with that letter, then you would slam the table as a signal. I guessed that means that if I got 'F' and 'does not act his age' then I would say 'Fleming' There wasn't much control of the game, so after a while it started to hilarious. People started banging the table for no reason, they played scissors paper stone, and we started giving strange answers. (I did not make this up)

Then it was time to go back home, so we started to pack up and take pictures (as usual) Naturaly, something more exciting had to happen, so it turns out to be a broken shoe. I will not go into the details, but I can tell anyone who is not my family that it concerned walking barefooted, standing like a flammingo, and a shoe made of tissue. After a few days, life started to change dramatically, it was another day, another textbook. So, I hope that we can go back soon, I'm starting to wonder if they have any cards marked 'F' and 'does not act his age'

I hate taking photos

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:01:00 +0000

I am sure that lots of people love taking photos. People do it for fun, for serious matters, and sometimes for life. However most people take photos of boring people instead of very exciting things like shoes or TVs. People take pictures of other people everyday. Whether it is a favour, for fun or behind their backs. Sometimes they take pictures of themselves

Well, you know what I hate it. I hate it when people take photos of me. It becomes more irritating when that person catches you doing something something funny like sucking your finger or giving an akward expression and then they laugh at it for days and days. Most of all I totally hate posing for the camera. My mother says that the photos can keep memories and stuuf but seriously when I look through the phots all I can see I are some baby pictures, one of which has a picture of me sucking 2 pacifiers at once, I don't need reminding of that. I seriously cameras can be used for more purposeful reasons such as some truly amazing things, not daily life.

Poptropica Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:41:00 +0000

A totally unsuspected starting by the Dark Knight:

Hello, my name is the Dark Knight. So, I assume you have not heard of me before. Indeed, I hope that in the future that we will never have to meet again. Of course, you would have realised that I probably have a different name. If so, you are correct I am holding a secret identity. What is my secret identity? That, for now, shall be a matter of no importance. I hope that what I am going to give you will be a help to you in the future. May my brothers go with you.

What in the? Hey, I waited 48 whole hours for you to arrive at Super Power Island at now you are on Spy island. I directed the story to my point of view, why didn't you appear at Super Power like civilised people. Hey, wait a second why is this paragraph not on the top of the blog. And how in the world did those pictures get up there? There is definitely trying to steal my blog. Well, no more I, Roy Larren shall no longer be stolen of my blog space. Who's Roy Larren you ask? Well, that's me don't you know, it's me. Here is a picture of me.

Don't I look dashingly handsome, no? Ah well... I better move off. KC will be coming soon. By now you should know KC is the other host of the Poptropica blog. She is going to direct this blog to her side of the story now. Well, goodbye and I suspect that she will be going through the entire Super Island. I'll get away from the scene now, bye.

KC's side of the Story

Hmm... you took a long time , I was expecting you 2 days ago. Ah well, animated characters like us can wait. While waiting, I stopped by onto the comic shop to check the comics out. It turns out there is some superhero-crazy person. He told me there was an old super hero waiting for me on the top of the daily paper place. He gave me a sheet of paper saying IAA PIA WPO DWN and vanished which I thought was odd for 5 reasons.

1. Why would he be superhero- crazy?

2. What would he care of an old superhero?

3. Why was his prediction true?

4. Why did he give me a piece of paper with nonsense on it?

5. How did he vainish?

Well I followed his advice and reached the top of the daily paper and we both had a rather interesting chat about his hero life. He told me about how he got his hero license and how he jumped in the air for joy and fell flat on his face when he heard it. Then, he told me about his hero days and how he managed to save the town's chickens from turning into ducks. In all, I thought it was rather interesting. When he was at the end of his speech he started to talk about the enemies he did not defeat. " Well sure, I hadn't caught a lot of heroes villans at that time" he said" but the rigmasters were the Binary Bard, Dr Hare, Dark Knight, B.A.D master and Old Star. Well I couldn't say more than that if the villans had any sense they would change their name into something more sensible, such as Egghead or Bubblebrain. I knew I couldn't leave such horrible bad guys with such horrible names so I persuaded him to tell me the secret of how to be a superhero. Well, now I am a full powered superhero ready to take on those tough villans and restore sensible names to Super Power Island.

Next Blog: Poptropica Part 5: The Battle of the Knight

Wait! This is the final message in this blog. Do you know what IAA PIA WPO DWN means?

Poptropica Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:46:00 +0000

Hopefully, you do know how to move around the map by now, so you should notice there is an island named " Shark Tooth Island". Now, let's say that you are done with saving Early Poptropica ( a few ultra smart people with lots of free time have already finished 5 accounts by now but we will assume you are not one of those people) and you are staring hopelessly at the computer, not knowing what to do. After 2 hours of massive staring, you decide that you cannot wait any longer. You jump into the blilmp and head to the nearest island you see.

The first thing you should see is a sign inviting you to shark tooth island. There, dosen't that look dashingly welcoming. If you are lucky you can also see some sharks.If you are unlucky you will see a gloomy city, in which case you have traveled to 24 Carrot Island. After this you should start to realise is the perfect place for a seashore vacation, despite the alarmingly large amount of sharks there are. You then quickly head to the Tourism centre but just when you about to open the door, you slap yourself on the head. For those people who did not make a big handmark on their forehead, you should have realised that there is also a problem on 1 of these islands. And sure enough after you talk to the locals, you find that there is a gigantic shark named the Booga who is guarding an island, with someone stranded on it with your luck.

So it turns out that the Booga is pratically impossible to kill and to confirm that they therw a nuclear bomb inside the seas but the shark threw into a coconut so it was not very legal, (unless you are a coconut). Even if killing that shark is against the odds, you are determined to kill the shark and finally get a proper vacation. As you fought to find a way to kill the shark, you used all your stamina to brew an ancient potion, dress in embarassing native grass skirts, solve tough puzzles and meet the Booga close and personal ( not recommended).

Next Blog: Poptropica Part 4- Time Tangled Island

Poptropica Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:25:00 +0000

For all those people who are

1.not happy with a reasonably good start off and insist on having a detailed explanation of the island

2.stuck in the sewers or

3. can't find their way to any of the islands

then this is the guide for you!

Now, before we start let's look at the map again.As, you can clearly see there are a total of 10 islands( not including Reality TV island which has not been released yet and Dr. Hare's Secret Lab which is a bonus island.)For those people who have no idea how to get anywhere on the map, the big yellow blimp is your form of transport. For those people who have realised that but you still don't know how to get around, just click on the your favourite island. Clearly as Early poptropica is the nearest island, the creators want us to go there first but you can choose any island you want.

The first island is Early Poptropica.For all you new players here, welcome to early poptropica, the history of poptropica people. Apparently, there are 3 missing pieces of historic artifacts.( pail, porker and a flag)

To obtain the 3 items will not be easy. In fact you will proabraly have to fly up in the skies, escape venoumous spiders and navigate a maze of darkness using a glow stick(not necesarily in this order)

Next blog: Poptropica Part 3- Shark Tooth Island

Poptropica Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:32:00 +0000

Throughout the months I spent playing the game, I have no idea why I did not blog about it. I am guessing it was because just like my last blog on Kampong Glam, it would be hopelessly long and I did not feel like typing much or was to busy typing other blogs.
But now that I am in the mood to type, I am going to talk about how you start up. First, you should see a log in page like this. You'll be surprised to know that if you are a new player you have to click on, err....new player, emm.. they were not feeling rather creative when they made it.

Then, they should ask you what gender and age you are to create your character. After that, here comes the part where you have to be creative, they will ask all the information your character will have . The information can never be changed. I also just found out that the creator of the game was the author of the book" Diary of a Wimpy Kid"

Once you are finished,you should see a large map filled with weird looking islands such as the Early Poptropica, or the Spy or even the Astro Knights island. Do not panic! They are merely asking what island you and your character want to go to.
Sometimes there are islands that are coming soon but not available yet. They also create a place in the map for that island but they specifically say that it is not open to the public yet.

Ok! That is all you need to know to create your own character. Your waterproof, foolproof character is ready to swim, fly and get locked up in detention.(how embarassing)

as well as

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:54:00 +0000

from perfectyourenglish

As well as has a similar meaning to “not only … but also”.
She is clever as well as beautiful.

Note that as well as introduces information which is already known to the listener/reader; the rest of the sentence gives new information.

Verbs after as well as
When we put a verb after as well as, we most often use the –ing form.
He hurt his arm, as well as breaking his leg. (NOT … as well as broke his leg.)
If there is an infinitive in the main clause, an infinitive without to is possible after as well as.
I have to clean the floors as well as cook the food.

Subjects
It is possible to connect two subjects with as well as. If the first subject is singular, the verb is usually singular.
Mary, as well as Ann, was delighted to hear the news.

But note that this is not a common structure. It is more normal to put as well as … after the main clause. This almost always happens with pronoun subjects.

Mary was delighted to hear the news as well as Ann.
He is rich as well as me. (NOT He, as well as I/me, is rich.)

March 2010 Holiday Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Day	Time
15-Mar-2010 (Mon)	10am to 11am	ACS Papers - English
	11:30am to 11:45am	Piano
	11:45am to 1:30pm	Free and Easy (Lunch)
	1:30pm to 2:30pm	English Game Project
	2:30pm to 4pm	Free and Easy
	4pm to 5:30pm	Chinese Assessment – 练习一
	5:30pm to 6:30pm	Free and Easy (Dinner)
	6:30pm to 7:30pm	English Game Project
	7:30pm onwards	Free

16-Mar-2010 (Tue)	10am to 11:30am	Chinese Assessment – 练习二
	11:45am to 12pm	Piano
	12pm to 1:30pm	Free and Easy (Lunch)
	1:30pm to 2:30pm	English Game Project
	2:30pm to 3:30pm	Free and Easy
	3:30pm to 5pm	English Game Project
	5pm to 5:30pm	Music Homework
	5:30pm to 6:30pm	Free and Easy (Dinner)
	6:30pm to 7:30pm	Blogging
	7:30pm onwards	Free

17-Mar-2010 (Wed)	10am to 11am	ACS Papers - Maths
	11:30am to 11:45am	Piano
	11:45am to 1:30pm	Free and Easy (Lunch)
	1:30pm to 3:00pm	English Game Project (Complete)
	3pm to 4pm	Free and Easy
	4pm to 5:30pm	Chinese Assessment – 练习三
	5:30pm to 6:15pm	Piano Lesson
	6:15pm to 7pm	Free and Easy (Dinner)
	7pm to 7:30pm	Read 1 Chinese Book
	7:30pm onwards	Free

18-Mar-2010 (Thu)	10am to 11am	ACS Papers - Science
	11:30am to 11:45am	Piano
	11:45am to 1:30pm	Free and Easy (Lunch)
	1:30pm to 3:00pm	5 pictures English Project
	3pm to 4pm	Free and Easy
	4pm to 5:30pm	Chinese Assessment – 练习四
	5:30pm to 6:30pm	Free and Easy (Dinner)
	6:30pm to 7:30pm	Maths Olympaid
	7:30pm onwards	Free

19-Mar-2010 (Fri)	10am to 11am	Catholic Papers - Science
	11:30am to 11:45am	Piano
	11:45am to 1:30pm	Free and Easy (Lunch)
	1:30pm to 3:00pm	5 pictures English Project
	3pm to 4pm	Free and Easy
	4pm to 5:30pm	Chinese Assessment – 练习五
	5:30pm to 6:30pm	Free and Easy (Dinner)
	6:30pm to 7:30pm	5 pictures English Project
	7:30pm onwards	Free

Kampong Glam

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Just about 2 weeks ago, I went to Kampong Glam in Bugis to learn about it's interesting history.

When we were on the bus, the teacher handed out worksheets to everybody in the bus and we were told that we were supposed to fill in the worksheet during our guided tour around Kampong Glam.

Even before we got off the bus, the tour seemed to have begun. The teacher on the bus told us about how in the 1800's, the Dutch were rich traders because they were in the spice trade. I quickly took out my notepad and copied down everything my teacher said. He also gave examples of the different spices such as Nutmeg, Clove and Cinnamon. He also explained that 6 different types of people lived in Kampong Glam. The Chinese, Arabs, Malays, Javanese, Indians and Bugis.

Then, she started to talk about how the British wanted to find a country that was not under Dutch control(the British were friends with the Dutch)So eventually, Sir Stanford Raffles founded Singapore to do spice trade. The Dutch were not happy that the British joined in the spice trade and there was a letter war between the British and the Dutch. Then, after a while they were tired of fighting and signed a treaty. Meanwhile, Hussien went overseas to attend to some buissness. When he got back though, he was surprised to find that his younger brother had taken over the throne. At that time, he could not fight back for the throne because his younger brother controlled the bugis.

Soon we got off the bus and headed to the Sultan Mosque . The teacher explained that yellow was a colour of royalty, which was why the Mosque was mostly yellow except for the black dome which was made of glass bottles donated by poor people with no money. He also told us about the minerack towers and how people would run up the towers and pray. The people would wash some parts of their body but not more than 3 times. This is to ensure that people do not waste water.The custom was started in a dessert.

Then, we were allowed to enter the Mosque. When we entered the Mosque, the first thing that caught my eye was the gigantic carpet on the floor. The teacher said thad the white patches on the carpet were positions for everyone to kneel on. She also said that man would pray on the first floor while woman pray in the second floor. This is to ensure that the people did not get distracted. She also said that the carpet was donated by a rich arabian family and to support such a big carpet the Mosque also needed to be very big. In fact, the Mosque can fit in about 5000 people in total.

After we left the Mosque, we headed to a toy store on the side of the street heading to the Mosque because it sold many traditional toys. It was time to have a break and every one scattered to either buy toys from the toy store or to get a drink from the nearest 7-11.

Then, we went to a tree with a white bark. The tree mainly has 3 uses

1. Its bark can withstand salty water so they can make ships or caulking

2.It's bark can also be used to make sails for boats

3.It contains oils that can cure headaches and stomachaches.

Finally we went to the istama museum, the former home of the Sultans. The teacher told us that the place was built by Ali on 1840 . Now it is a museum. The teacher told us about how the palace turned into a museum. When the Sultan signed the treaty with Sir Stamford Raffles, he was promised an annual salary. But the British became greedy and wanted Singapore for themselves so they took away the Sultan's annual salary. Then, not only did they offer lots of money, they also offered lots of money if the Sultan left Singapore. The Sultan left. Then, Ali appeared and was given the place of Sultan. In the end, Ali was forced to move out in 2002 because the goverment said that it was his land and now the goverment gives the family $350000 every month.That is not very much when you think about the 300 children that the Sultan had to share the money with every month.

Then , to top the day off, we had a chapatek and a sarong tying competion. Although I did not participate in any of the competions, I had a good time watching.

After that it was time to go home.
I had a great time at Kampong Glam.

My new Facebook game

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:37:00 +0000

I really like Realm of Empires.There are 2 realms in the Realm of Empires.Both realms have the same rules.In the game there is silver.Silver is needed to upgrade buildings and recruit your troops as no king or queen is left sitting in his throne when enemies are attacking or he is planning an attack.

This Realm of Empires is a medieval themed game that allows you to plan your commands be it to build your buildings,recruit your soldiers or attack a village,you can just do it in a few minutes and leave it overnight to do your requests.

The names of the buildings are known as the headquarters which that helps to quicken building time,the silver mine which helps you to get income of silver everyday,the treasury which increases the maximum amount of silver you can have,the trading post that allows you to send silver to one village to another.There are also buildings that allow you to recruit soldiers such as the barracks that allows you to have citizen mitilda and Infantry.The stable that lets you have light Calvary and knights.For siege workshops,rams and trenchbuckets.For tavern,spies and for palace,governors.

The citizen mitilda is a good beginners soldier as it is cheap and not at all time consuming but some infantry would be better to defend your empire.Then there is light Calvary,a weaker version of the Knight who is the ultimate assault weapon.There are also the siege machines.There is the ram who smashes your enemies walls and trenchbuckets that can smash any building.Also there a the spies that can bring back information about the enemies empire.There are also governors,that can help you take over a village.

Still before,you can take over a village you must find a village to take over and you need to go to the “map”.In the map you would find many villages.All of them having points and looks according to how many points it has.

So now you’ve got a target village and you have plenty of knights and siege engines but you forgot the two most important things.A governor and a CLAN!!!!Having a clan will have many advantages such as silver support and troop support and an ultra protection.It also lets you have access to the clan forum and they proabraly are smart enough to tell you that fighting a village without a governor is stupid.

Now,if you succeeded in meeting all the requirements of this,than soon your small village will grow to into a mighty empire.I definitely like Realm of Empires alot.

Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Yesterday,I visited our relatives because it was Chinese New Year.First we visited my mother’s relatives and then my father’s relatives.Then I slept over at my grandmother’s house for the night.The next day,We had breakfast at toast box as we had nothing to else to eat.We didn’t go visiting that day.When it was evening,we went to block 27 to have a delicious bowl of fish soup and after we drank the soup we went to the block 27 playground to play.I enjoyed the Chinese New Year holidays.

Reunion Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:28:00 +0000

Today was the day we had our reunion lunch.Before we went for our Chinese New Year lunch, we turned a Pokemon machine to get some Pokemon.Then we arrived at the vegetarian restaurant that we were going to have our reunion lunch but the rest of the family was not there yet so we ate peanuts while waiting.When the rest of the family was here,we ordered some dishes like a vegetable platter,some fish filled with vegetable,Mock shark fin soup and many more.I thought the dishes were delicious.I can’t wait until we have a reunion lunch again!

The Chinese new year

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:18:00 +0000

There was no CCA today and spent the first hour of school doing a English worksheet.

Then for the next hour was spent watching the new year celebrations.

Before recess it was mental sums.

After recess it was Chinese and it was spent talking about our homework.

Then the rest of the day was reading the next chapter of James and the giant peach.

School

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:10:00 +0000

Assembly was first and for the next few sessions before recess it was math.

During the first 2 sessions of math,it was revising math.For the next session,it was mental sums.For the rest of the math lesson,it was learning number patterns.

Then it was recess.After recess it was Chinese.

During the first session of Chinese,it was Chinese spelling.The rest of the lesson was spent doing corrections.

Then it was P.E and we spent on a game where we threw balls at each other.

The rest of the day was Science.The lesson was on living and non living things.

After my birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Yesterday was fun because it was my birthday but soon I had to go to school again.Today was assembly first and classes later as usual.

After assembly,it was math.During math,we learned about comparing numbers.

Then it was art.During art,we were taught on how to use a Chinese brush.

Then it was recess.After recess it was Chinese.

During Chinese,the class wrote a composition from 2 pictures.

Then for the rest of the day,it was reading James and the giant peach.

Meet the parents session.

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Today was Friday and like any other Friday,CCA came first.Since my CCA was horticulture/science,I spent the time pulling weeds.

Next it was recess and after recess it was Chinese.

During Chinese,our teacher was checking to see if we did her homework.

Next it was Spelling where we had to spell 15 words from our spelling list.

Since it was Meet The Parents Session 1,we spent the rest of the day in the hall learning about cyber-wellness.

First Composition

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:45:00 +0000

It was the first composition today.The day started with assembly.

Then,it was math and we once again continue on place value.We also did the activity book.

Then we started the composition.The composition was about a story of honesty.We were given a model composition,the 4 pictures and some tips on composition writing.

During Chinese,we shared some tips on Chinese compositions.

The rest of the day was spent doing corrections and reading a book or finishing the composition,for those people who did not finish their compositions.

In School

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:41:00 +0000

Today was like any other as it started with assembly and then math

During math,we continued doing hundreds,tens and ones.We also did our workbook.

Then it was P.E.We spent the P.E lesson trying different ways to run.Examples include running with our hands in the air or running with our hands folded.

Recess was next and when it ended it was health education.

We learned about conflicts and when they can happen.

After health education it was Chinese.We spent the lesson doing some Chinese homework.

We spent the rest of the day doing English and social studies.

During English,we learned about present and past tense.Then we did an activity on the workbook.

During Social Studies,we learned about why is Singapore so well known and we also learned that Singapore is completely covered by water

Another day

noreply@blogger.com (Edison Siow) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:24:00 +0000

It is an another day at school and it started off with the assembly as usual.

Then it was math and we learned place values of ones,tens,hundreds,thousands and ten thousands.

Then it was recess.

After recess,it was mother tongue and we were revising yesterday’s story in the textbook.

Then for the rest of the day it was the introductions to science lessons and science books,newspapers,magazines and websites.