ACE Blog Post 2: Australia Decides! Australian Election 2010

Australia is facing the problem of a hung parliament after having the most closely fought election in more than 70 years today, in 2010.

In June, Kevin Rudd was ousted by his own party, completing an astonishing fall from dizzying heights of public popularity. He's been replaced by Australian first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, who's going to be facing off against the pugnacious Tony Abbott.

Just yesterday, the two party candidates were making last minute rallies, visiting old folks home and neighborhoods.

Speaking to supporters in Melbourne late Saturday, Prime Mister Julia Gillard described the outcome as 'to close to call", quoting former US President Bill Clinton, saying, 'The People have spoken, but its going to take a while to determine exactly what they said."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard may be facing the problem of being the Prime Minister in the shortest amount of time, after just taking over from former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

With the voting being taking place in New South Wales and Queensland, along with Melbourne, Sydney, only time will tell what will be of Australia new government, a hung parliament, or will it?

ACE Blog Post: LATEST NEWS: Van Gogh Painting of Poppy Flowers stolen from Cairo Museum!

Earlier Egypt's culture minister Farouk Hosni said an Italian couple had been arrested at Cairo airport, and the small canvas found. The painting, worth at least 32million pounds was still missing, unlike first reported. The painting was cut out of its frame and this is the second time the painting has gone missing. The painting is very valuable as it is said that the painting was drawn a few years just before his death, where he suffered from seizures. First stolen in 1978, it was later found in Kuwait in 1980. Poppy painting was important as this represented a change in the style of Van Gogh's painting style. Investigations are underway in Cairo, Egypt

Self Written poem: Chemicals

The following is a poem which I had written myself, based on chemicals and their symbols and reactions. This is meant to be a humorous poem.

When you have some phenol,

You will get a C6 H6 O,

Argon is Ar and Oxygen is O2,

Whereas bromine is Br2.

Methane, Ch4

Nope, you don't want to smell them anymore

They start to stink, more and more,

Worse than a sweaty person's skin pores!

Methylbutane,

Dimethylbutane!

Methylpentane!

They are Alkanes!

Aluminum in Bromine,

Not too long, darkness looms,

Nope, there's no warning sign

Very soon, theres a Boom!

There it is, Aluminuim Bromide!

In the test tube, right inside!

Ethanol, Methanol,

Pentanones,

They are Phenol and Cresols

And Alkanones

Chemicals are interesting,

Thats for sure,

We are finally done with creating,

Let's get some beer!

Yeast and Alcohol,

All form beer.

I am very sure,

The future is no where near!

Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The story starts off with a murder, by a mysterious man, sent to kill a family. Unfortunately, he failed, haveing failed to kill the baby. The baby was later raised by ghosts in the graveyard and was named Nobody Owens, after Mr. and Mrs. Owens decided to raise him. Also known as Bod, he wandered around the graveyard and hoped that someone will play with him. His guardian, Silas, was one of the person in whose presence, felt comforted. Silas is neither dead, nor alive and was the one who would get food and necessary supplies for Bod.

Later, a girl, named Scarlett Amber Perkins arrives at he graveyard to play and meets Bod. Her parents think Bod is her imaginary friend but that wasn't the case. Later, at 15 years old, she returns and encounters Jack Frost, who was the mystery man which killed Bod's family years ago. Now, Bod has powers similar to that of a ghost and with the help of his friends in the graveyard, he takes out the man Jack, and becomes the master of the Sleer, which is a massive creature guarding a secret.

Poems

The poem I chose is: Three or So by Berlie Doherty

Is the girl in the snapshot me?

The little girl in the woolen dress

By a broken door in a tiny yard

She's shy and laughing and ready to run

And shielding her eyes from the morning sun

I've forgotten the dress, and the colour of it

I've forgotten who took the photograph

I've forgotten the little girl, three or so

She's someone else now, to be wondered at

With my mother's eyes and my own child's hair

And my brother's smile, but the child who's there ----

The real soul of her -- fled long ago

To the alley-way where she mustn't go

Through the broken door in that tiny yard

Rough men on motorbikes, not to be looked at

Scrawny cats scratching, not to be touched

Down to the railway line, never to go there

Nor up the road where the traffic rushed

Stay closed in the yard with the sun in your eyes

Come and be still for your photograph

I can hear now the drone of those bikes

And the loud dark voices of the men

And the howl of the tomcats on the prowl

I can hear the scream and shush on the train

And the whooshing of traffic on the road

But the summer buzz in that tiny yard

And the child who laughed with her best dress on

And the voice that told her to stand in the sun

And the click that pressed the shutter down

Have gone

As if they had never been.

Here are the steps to read a poem:

Step 1: Forget what the poem may or may not mean, or what it may be about.

Step 2: Look at the title and jot down half a dozen things that it suggests to you. Give literal meaning as well as other associations.

Step 3: Read the poem once quickly and then several times more slowly. Try to hear the poem aloud in your head

Step 4: Make a list of all those things which force their attention on you or which catch your interest for one reason or another. You might jot down unusual/ odd/ striking words, rhymes or repetition/ patterns/ contrasts etc.

Step 5: Look at and list any features of languages used in the poem, eg.

No capital letters; no full stops at all line-end; presence/ absence of adverbs/ adjectives; all verbs are active/ passive; tenses - all past except in the last line, etc.

Step 6: Try to find groups of words ( thematic boxes) eg.

(a) All similes make reference to animals/ death/ plants etc.

(b) All the first words of lines are conjunctions etc

* Don't worry if your group of words seem silly or improbable. Look at what you have observed and ask yourself what is its significance

Step 7: Look at your lists, notes and groups. do you see and pattern taking shape?

Step 8: Read the poem again and try to make intelligent guesses of what the poem may mean

Step 9: Answer the following questions:

(a) Who is 'speaking' the poem? Is it the poet or the persona?

(b) Who is the poem 'spoken'? Is it a particular person, to the poet himself (reflective) or to the public in general?

(c) What is the speaker's attitude towards that audience? Is it angry, sincere, joking or teasing?

(d) what is the speaker's attitude to his audience?

(e) Why is this poem organized in the way it is?

(f) What is the effect of all the things you have noted at steps 2,4,5 and 6?

Step 10: Now if you wish to, or have to ( because of an exam), you can write a critical appreciation of that poem

My Answers:

Step 2: Something small

Something Young

Something that cannot be decided

A number around 3

A age of someone

Something very little

Step 4: snapshot

soul

scrawny

drone

prowl

buzz

click

Step 5: Missing full stops at the end of each sentence

Some dashes in words, possibly a pause

Step 6: (a) scrawny, men

Step 9: (a) It is the poet himself

(b) It is to himself (reflective)

(c) It is sincere and thoughtful

(d) He is rather straightforward in his thinking, making it easier for his audience to understand

(e) It is arranged chronologically

(f) It is what makes a reflective poem, and consists of all the elements of a reflective thought

Finally, What I think of the poem is that it is a reflective thought of the persona the poet has formed and the persona once lived in a poor conditions and in danger. They were probably poor as well as the persona only had one photograph to refer to and the mother was calling her to come for her photograph, which meant that maybe it was such a rare opportunity to have their photo taken that she wasn't willing to let her child run off and play. It also describes briefly where the author stayed, dangerous places with rough men, scrawny cats and also near a city district, as there were busy streets with many cars.

Limerick

Here is a interesting limerick I found off the internet

There was an old lady from Clyde
Who ate forty apples and died
The apples fermented
inside the lamented
and made cider inside her insides

Lamented - Usually a way to describe the deceased

Some Interesting Limericks - Page 1

Here is the link

E-Learning

The poem I chose is: The Road Not Taken-By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Hyperbole- Oh, equally, and, as far, all

Personification- Two roads diverged

Metaphor- and, just, could

Simile-as, and

Why I like this poem is because there is a meaning in it, a meaning that sounds like it is part of Life's Journey. If you are normal and take the path always taken, you will be normal. However, if you choose to take the path less taken, like how other people have done before , you will stand out as someone more special, unique and useful o the society. These people will eventually go to a special place led by the path, while the people who take the normal path will go in the same direction as where normal people go. This poems seems to be an inspiration for us to take the road less taken, and be a important person in today's society.