wong (wongyongjie.multiply.com)

  I missed yet another 3-4 meetings because of my CCA. There was either training or the match itself...Very tiring. Anyway, since the splitting of our space into half, my other group members had to shift the cloths...again. This time however, as the space was smaller, they could cover about all of the top of the space to make it even darker than before.                        i think ashwin got a scrapbook for the journal already.

  Jit Sheng, Thiyagu and I met up after school to cover up the windows that were too bright for our exibition. jit sheng brought along one whole roll of trash bag which looked quite stupid. However, after we used it to cover up the whole window, the effect was quite good. there was now very little light left entering our area and was pretty dark- just what we needed.

  Ashwin was at his HMT so he could not help out but after he finished it and came to our area, he was quite impressed. We had already finished covering up the window...

  For the past week, our group has discussed about our topic on Vampirism as a Virus. We have decided to take a scientific stand that vampirism is a virus. How we are doing this is to compare the similarities and differences between our vampire "virus" and other similar diseases like aids and viruses that pass through body fluids like blood etc.

  We have also tried to explain how the vampire virus affects the host such that the host gains certain "special abilities" like the virus repairing the hosts' cells causing them to live for a much longer time and how it is this process that makes them vulnerable to sunlight.

  I have also listed down some differences between the vampirism virus and aids like how some people are immune against this virus while all people can be affected by aids. Vampirism is also an instant spread while aids takes a long time to incubate inside its host.

  Already in the first scene of the, we can see how Shylock was prejudiced just for the fact that he was a jew. He was being stereo typed along with race. Some of them were being beaten up, some even thrown into the river all due to their race. Shylock was even spit upon at by Antonio when all Shylock did was to greet Antonio.

   Throughout the whole movie, there was one event where we can clearly that Shylock was unfairly treated. When Bassanio and Antonio wanted to address Shylock they always say "the Jew". There was only one scene where I remembered him being called his real name and that was when Bassanio needed to borrow money from him. This is another form of Shylock being prejudiced against.

   Another scene where Shylock was a victim of prejudice was the trial. When Shylock wanted his forfeiture of one pound of flesh, all the audience disagreed with him. Even when he gave his reasons for doing so, not only did no one agree with him, they jeered him even more.

  It is understandable why Shylock insisted on having Antonio's pound of flesh no matter what. After all, Shylock has been putting up with Antonio's behavior for so long. Even when Antonio spit upon Shylock, he just stood on the same spot without any hint of retaliating. Also, since jews cannot own any property nor work outside the Ghetto, their only form of making money was to lend out money and collect back usance - a form of interest. However, Antonio always insulted him of his "job" but Shylock just left it as it is. That is why Shylock is so persistent in killing Antonio.

  In the movie, one main theme was mercy. In the trials, Portia talked a lot about mercy. How Shylock should be showing that, how benefiting it is to the soul and how it is like and attribute of God himself. Despite saying all that, I think what she said was all a bluff. She talked about the greatness of mercy herself but did not practice it. After Shylock compromised to take the 6 thousand ducats, then down to 3 thousand and even not want the money at all in the end, Portia was heartless. Not only did she not let Shylock off without taking the money, she forced him to take his forfeiture and finally made him give up all that is left of his possessions.

  The first meeting which our group had was to discuss about the brochure on wolves. We went to Jit Sheng's house on 11th july which was a saturday. Jit Sheng booked a pool room in his condominium. There, the work we did was to research on wolves, find pictures and also to assign the remainder of the work. Our group leader is Ashwin and he was in charge of assigning the work. Jit sheng and Thiyagu was supposed to work on the layout of the brochure and Ashwin and I would compare them to each other and edit them. There was time time remaining and since the pool table was just beside us...

   Surprisingly, Jit Sheng did his work!!!!! He brought his work on Wednesday so Ashwin and I cut out the information we needed and pasted it on the brochure. But, as the glue we used was a wet one, the end result was not that good so we will be doing another one in the next couple of days.

How To Slay A Vampire

Items Needed: Wooden Stake (made up of mountain ash)

                         Hammer

                         Crucifix

                         Wild Flowers

                         Ring of Garlic

                         Sharp Axe

                         Wild Rose

                         Candles

                         Crowbar

Steps

1)   Locate the vampire. Places to start with are dark enclosed areas with sacred soil where the vampires must rest.

2)   Chose a sunny time and enter the tomb quietly wearing the ring of garlic.

3)   Place wild rose over vampire’s coffin. Set up candles around coffin to enhance vision.

4)   Slowly remove lid of the coffin while holding out the crucifix. If lid is sealed, use crowbar to pry open.

5)   Quickly position stake over vampire’s heart with left hand upon removing lid and hammer it down hard using right hand. Repeat until penetrating heart

6)   Chop off head of vampire fast and hard with axe and stuff garlic into its mouth.

7)   Take along the head into the sunlight to make sure it is really dead.

8)   Clear up the mess. 

The difference I found in the movie ‘Vampire’ and Dracula by Bram Stocker is that the vampires in the movie are more realistic. In the book, vampires could change their forms into bats and wolves while in the movie they cannot. Also, in the book, crosses affects them but the ones in the movie are not.

  In the movie, Dracula is supposed to be the "evil"one and Van Helsing the "good" one. However, even though Dracula creates lots of trouble like trapping Jonathan, controlling Lucy and making Mina fall for him, it also shows why became like this.

  In the first part, Dracula was supposed to be the protecter of his church. But because of his great love for his lover who commited suicide, he was enraged and in the end turned against god for bring unfair after all the good deeds he had done.

  In the end, Dracula turned back to his normal self, this also due to love.It was because of Mina that made him good again. After this, You would feel some pity for him as whatever he did was because of love.

  Compared to other groups, I think that our group is poor. Most of the other groups did their work as they all know what to say. Our group did not prepare so we did not know what to say. Our conclusion did not reinstate our point or rebutt at the other group's one.

  At the crossfire, it was the worst. We did not come out with any other points or counter argue the other group's points. Instead, each one of the opposing team came up with an extra point.