Malaysia Week Blogpost

For Malaysia week I went to Ulu Perak. Ulu Perak was a 6 hour bus ride and a 4 hour hike, or you could take a 30 minute boat ride to skip the hike. Ulu Perak is a Eco Rainforest site where you hike, camp and raft. One SLR I did at Ulu Perak was Collaborating Constructively. I collaborated with my boat groups and my friends. With my boat group we had many challenges and we had to finish and accomplish them, my boat group was Alex, Ali, Ashley, Natalie and I. One example is when we had a challenge which we all had to push the raft into the river and paddle to a rock and paddle back as fast as we could, we collaborated together and made a plan which later on helped us win (See picture above). Another good example is when Natalie fell in and Ashley and I had to rescue her along with Alex telling us what to do. We had to collaborate constructively because if someone had dropped something without them realizing we had to help them carry it and give it to them. In addition to this we had to Communicate Effectively. Going back to the example when we had to cross the river and touch the rock, in order to go as fast as possible we all shouted "GO!" together and that meant that you would paddle when you say go which gives you more force and made us win. A social way that I communicated effectively is that I started talking to people that I never knew and being nice to them and becoming friends. 


I also think that I used the SLR Think Creatively. In our tent we had many problems, such as people afraid of getting leeches so we all thought for a while thinking for a solution, my solution was that since the tent had no covering at the bottom we would place our bags there to act like a barrier, and Charlie thought that we could spray the tent with bug spray but Mr. Burk said we couldn't so then Dylan said we could just spray the perimeter of the tent so it would be outside of the tent, in the end we only had about 3-4 leeches which was good. Another good way that we Thought Creatively is when we were carrying our really heavy bags on our hike and Alex thought of a solution which is since we were carrying paddles we could slide it underneath the strap and then put the paddle on your shoulder, it was very effective because you would not feel any pain or anything and it felt lighter and I said that if the paddle did not work then put the two straps together and since we had these small seat-belt cushion thing it would double the cushioning making it nicer and less painful to carry.    


The last SLR is Live Ethically. We did this basically throughout the whole trip because this Malaysia Week is suppose to be 'Leave no Trace' and we were on a Eco site. I have lots of examples we did not use soap with chemicals we used bio-degradable, we had little trash,  we did not litter, we did not disturb living things apart from leeches we flicked them off, we used reusable things such as zip-lock bags, non-plastic bottles that did not break easily and used  very little toilet paper etc. We basically were respecting others and the especially environment. 

Images: 


https://plus.google.com/photos/114142975884446487960/albums/5734753971016725953/5734756420460622594?banner=pwa


https://plus.google.com/photos/114142975884446487960/albums/5734753971016725953/5734756770547985698?banner=pwa

Last Utopia Giver Blogpost

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have learned many things about society and life here as the Receiver of Memory. Becoming the Receiver of Memory changed me, it had taught me many other things about life that this society wants to avoid which some are good and some are not. This society does not give you freedom and freedom is important, one cannot judge another, even when they may choose wrongly it should be their choice and they should have all rights to choose for themselves unlike this society that is very limited. Freedom is important and thats one of the reasons I am going to another society.

Dad, remember when you lied to me about releasing? And how you made it seem like a very joyful and happy thing to do. Well since the Giver has showed me now, I now know that it is a very mean and horrible thing to do. I am slightly sad because the baby could have had a great life ahead and you killed it in an instant. After reading this I am hoping that you will stop and let their life carry on. After you had said Gabriel is going to be released last night, if you had noticed he is gone because he is with me, I don't want him to die like all the other babies had died because I want him to live for once. Though I understand why you lied to me because the community is like that though I believe that if you try to say that releasing is wrong others will then realize it is wrong too and stop.

I know that this is hard but I just can't stand being in a place and community like this, this community has no emotion, no people that care except for Rosemary, The Giver and I. This community is too hard to live in especially when you have the memories. In other societies there are thing like love, love is a good thing it makes you feel safe. I'm sure other society won't have horrible things like releasing because they have love, they care for one another unlike this society. When you have the memories things come to you such as on how this society can improve, how you are more aware about things that are wrong. For example when I had learned about war, when Asher, Fiona and the other kids started playing a war game while dancing and jumping around which was sort of making fun of war, my heart sank because I knew that it was a bad game and war is not funny because people die, Asher and Fiona and the others could not understand because they don't have the memories and I can't give it to them.

Once again I am truly sorry but I am doing this for your good, gabriel's good, my good and for the societies good. After reading this please try to tell them whats wrong and whats right for me. Thank you for your care for me.

Best Wishes, Jonas

Giver Blogpost 2

2. Why is it so difficult to disagree with a chanting audience?

 I think that there are many reasons why it is difficult to disagree with a chanting audience. Firstly is because you can't make a decision. You can't really make a statement when there are a group of people that are much much louder than your own voice. You can't make a decision because when you are thinking that you don't want to do this assignment or job, then you would think when you hear them chanting and if you say no they would be very disappointed in you especially when the Elders had failed to chose The Memory of Receiver last time.

"With the chant, Jonas knew, the community was accepting him and his new role, giving him life, the way that they had given it to new child Caleb. His heart swelled with gratitude and pride."

Another reason is that are showing that they are depending on you, like Jonas for instance when he was picked for being The Receiver of Memory when he was asked what was Capacity to see Beyond he could not disagree with the crowd screaming "JONAS, JONAS, JONAS." because the people was counting on him and he knew that everyone was watching him. You can't say no or you will be hated or disliked for the rest of your life in that community. When the crowd is chanting for you it shows that they depend on you and if you don't agree with them they will most likely do something bad to you as in the Giver you will most likely be 'released', it is when you are put to sleep using a needle or a injection, it is basically letting someone put you down, or in other words kill you.

Giver Blogpost Number 1

1. Would you want your future to be decided by others ? Why or Why not?


Well I think that I want my future to be decided by others and myself. I think this because I think other people should chose somethings for me and some decisions that I should make. I think that it is sometimes better for someone else to choose for you because they know what your strengths are and believe that you can do it. I also think it is sometimes better for someone else to choose is because you won't have to stress as much. Its also good because maybe you don't know what your good at and the other person knows what your good at and will pick the right thing for you. Its also a good idea because you would want to know what type of strengths you have and other people could just say what your good at and you can choose what you want instead of them choosing for you they suggest and you would have from freedom to choose. One of the best reasons why it should be decided by others because you might choose wrongly and might regret it for the rest of your life. 


Though I also think that it is good sometimes to choose what you want to do in life not for someone else to choose for you. It would not be fun if someone chooses everything for you. Just like a person telling you what to do which I don't like very much. It can also be good to choose by yourself because if the person who is choosing for you picks the wrong thing you will get either get sad or angry which will not end very well. I also think that it is a good idea to choose by yourself because you would have more freedom and you would know what you want (though you may choose wrongly). I think that the Giver is a prime example why I should also not others choose because others might get disappointed with themselves for not getting the job they wanted and they will think that they weren't good enough to get the job that they wanted. 


"There are rarely disappointments, Jonas" This shows that there were some people that got disappointed and you could become like that and be sad for the rest of your future. That is why I think that my future can be decided by others and by myself. In conclusion there are both positive and negative things about choosing by yourself or by others choosing for you so thats why I picked both. 

Is Fate Prearranged? Emma, Nelson, Sarah, Gabriel, and Sean

Ancient Egyptian iMovie Reflection

I worked with Nelson on the Pharaoh Ramses The Great also know as Ramses II.
1. The benefits of working with a classmate / or alone.
I think that there are many benefits of working with a partner. I think this because it would be over all  much more easier than being alone. You would have two brains to work on one thing so that you would get things done much more faster. You would not have to do everything, you could do one part and your partner does the other part and you would not have to stress over not finishing in time than being alone. Another benefit is that you could be a gestalt type of person and your partner could be logic person (like Nelson and I) the Gestalt person does the big picture and then the Logic person fixes stuff and adds more information and the very important detail so it would become a well-balanced and good piece of writing or anything else. Another thing is that your partner maybe could get you on task and you won't be distracted. Also your partner could maybe see things that are wrong that you would not be able to see  and you might think is right and your partner can explain and can help you fix it.

2. Challenges / obstacles which you overcame (tried to overcome).

I think that we had a few challenges on finally finishing it. One example that we had to overcome was how could we put in this really cool clip that we found on iMovie onto another iMovie. After lots of perseverance and a lot of tries, we finally cracked it and found a way to put the clip in. Another example was that we were running out of time and we had not done much because we had been fixing all the small details. How we fixed this problem was that we did what we really needed to do, then we finish up all the other small things. The last example was that there was not enough pictures and we could not record all of our lines and we had to finish fast. How we solved it was that we first made the pictures really long like 20 seconds or more then we first did what was our number one priority which was to finish recording and after we did that we added more pictures and finished everything else and we luckily finished in time.

3. New understandings that you gained about yourself.

I think that I learned that I am very stubborn. For example when we could not put in the clip and Nelson said do the pictures I was very stubborn and kept on trying until I got it in the end. I also think that I am more relaxed with a partner. I think that it is more relaxing because you won't have much work than being alone and that you simply will not stress because you know that your partner got your back and you have his/hers. I also think it is easier because your partner can specialize in one thing and you in another and it would be easy to solve each other problems and we did not have to stress on things. The last thing I learned about myself is that I am quite good at using Mac Books or technology. I think this because I solved a lot of things that involved technology. The main reason is that I could do lots of tricks on iMovie that we needed.

City Presentation Reflection

1) What you believe you did well on the project?

I believe I did well on getting information. I researched information well and I found different websites that match the topic. For example when I needed information about topography I found a website that had everything that I needed. I thought that I had a lot of information especially on the History page. I also believe that I cited sources well. For example for every website I used I cited it like, I did not forget any websites and didn't forget to cite all the images. I believed that I did well in editing my work. I think that I checked my spelling as well as grammar by using spell check.

2) What you would improve for future presentations/projects?

I think that I would need to improve in using more sources for my writing and for information. I think I should use more sources because sometimes one source could be wrong and get it wrong. Usually I don't have anything to back a statement or information up. For example I might think that the Malaysian Reunion was established in 1960(not true) I would not really be very confident with the answer because maybe some other sites would be right and should check other sources more in future presentations. Another thing I would improve is to add more slides, like a slide full of pictures or give more info or even do an extra slide to get a better grade. I think that would improve my grade is to make my presentation more interesting like putting more pictures on every slide. Another way to make it more interesting is to maybe put a youtube video. To make it even more better is to make it easier to read. So next time I should make the background white so you can see it better and it will not be hard on your eyes when you read it. To read text more easier I think that I should not put too much text on one slide and make it more spread out for the future because then you would be stuck on one slide reading it and it would be very boring. I think the final and critical thing that I would improve is too do the harder slides first so at the end you can easily finish on time. 

3) What did you learn from your preparation (for your presentation) in addition to the presentations of others?

I learned that I should get ready on time. Some people from my group had not finished like me so I think that we should manage our time more wisely. Another thing is to not speak of the slides and summarize it because it would be boring to read off the slide. We learned more about different countries and their different war strategies and how it is a good place to make a country. For example Kuwait is surrounded by desert so invaders would die sometimes because of the weather, dehydration and animals so it would be hard to invade the country. I have learned that most countries were taken over by some other country. I have learned that most countries are supported by their natural resources and environmental factors. For example Malacca is surrounded with water so trade started to happen with India and China which exchanged valuable item that could not be found in Malacca, like from China Silk and India Spices.

4) What is your analysis of your performance?
I think that overall I did well. I think that I checked my work well, found out good information, made it easy to read, added all my sources pointed out key factors and so on. I think this mainly because my friends did not tell me to do anything else but finish it which I have. I think that I could have improved though as I mentioned by making sure my info was right by checking other sources not only one source. Though I think that it was kinda hard because everyone knows my country well(because we live here) so many people knew some things but some things they did not know about like Malaysia was called Malaya in the old days so that was a good thing about it.