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Friday, April 30, 2010

Improvement

Recently, we had done our NAPHA Test which is basically a physical fitness test. Some people like it while others hated it. It consist of six items, standing broad jump, shuttle run, inclined pull-ups, sit-up, sit and reach and the dreaded 2.4km run. I will be focusing more on the run though. I was proud of myself that there was an improvement in my physical fitness. I always thought I could not run as fast as those in the class. I owed it all to my training. Training actually helps especially when it is torture since it pushes you to the limit.

I never liked the run. Ever since the start of 1.6km run in primary 4.It was tiring and I really disliked the moment when you stop running after the run as exhaustion sets in. I had ran 8 minutes and 14 seconds during the start of the run when I was 10.However,the subsequent years, to my dismay my timing was getting longer .The timing for an A got shorter each year as we are expected to be fitter since we are growing older. Apparently the older I get the slower I run. Something was wrong. When I turned 13, I had to run two more laps making the distance kilometres instead of just 1.6 Last Year for my 2.4km run I got 14 minute and about 20seconds for my timing which was seriously very bad. If you do the Math, my average speed each lap then was much slower when I was just 10 years old. It was not a promising sign and I got silver for it. That was the item that pulled my physical fitness grades down.

There are always people that complain about the physical training they have to do during their respective sport Co-curricular activities. I am pretty sure that many of us do complain. I am no exception. One year of tennis training is hard. We do not just hit tennis balls with our rackets. Tennis is a sport about speed and stamina. If you do not build up speed, however good the skill, if you cannot run fast, you lose a point and subsequently the match. Without stamina, speed is nothing. Of course skill plays an important part in the game. Our coach made us do push-ups, jumping jacks and a lot of running. Oh, there is a lot of foot-work training and jumping too. We had to jump over cones continuously for a few minutes before a short break and we continue with that a few more times. It may sound easy as you may think "It is only jumping" but you should try it continuously sometime and you will know the pain. Another thing we had to do is called the "5 lines suicide” As the name suggest, it is really tiring especially if you do it like 3 times in a row with short breaks in between. There are five lines on the tennis court. We first start from the fence and run to the first line nearest to us, touch it and run back to the fence. We next, without stopping will have to touch the second line and return to the fence and this goes on till the fifth line is touched and we would stop at the fence. It is something like shuttle run but longer. Our coach had a "sadistic"(I thought like that at first) mindset. He occasionally put the condition that the fastest runner of the five lines could sit out the next few runs while the others had to do them. The number would dwindle till there were a few left. So we could end up doing more than 5 times. That was the most that we did. We were left panting on the floor with sweat smeared on your faces. It was not enjoyable and we tolerated it. Sprinting was not my forte. I was one of the last (at least not the last) to finish all the runs.

I never felt I was getting physically fitter. I felt the same so I thought I would be the same. My shuttle run this year was quite good. I had beaten my own record by 0.6 seconds to achieve the timing of 9.28 seconds which was and a grade. I did not know how fast I went and only to learn it when the teacher announced it. Well, hard work had certainly paid off. A year of tough tennis training and sprinting had helped me achieve this I considered to myself a remarkable feat. Even though training was not enjoyable and was more like a torture, it was because it pushed us to the limit that we could improve. If you stay in your comfort zone and not putting a 110%, it is very difficult to see improvement.

The next success came during the 2.4km run. I dreaded the run as it made me gets silver last year. My good friend told me that the "secret" to running fast for long distance is to tolerate it. Simply just tolerate it. Do not stop when you feel tired and just continue. It is like the Nike's slogan “Just do it" Therefore that was what I did. I did not stop. I just kept running. Exhaustion was unbearable. The feeling of legs weighing a ton came which made you feel like stopping and walking. However, from past experience, stopping and walking only makes you feel the exhaustion and it will be harder to start running again. Once you stop, you feel the tiredness. So I kept telling myself not to stop and I finished the 6 laps without any breaks. Thus I got a timing of 12minutes and 56 seconds, much faster than last year. I had an immense sense of satisfaction. I not only improved in the timing but also the willpower to continue running. This test had shown me that improvement is only possible through hard work and determination.

Not just in physical fitness but other areas also need this determination and hard work to excel. There are many times when I feel lazy and did not want to carry on studying or doing the work and wished to postpone them to another day.However, this attitude is very bad. Postponement does not get the work done, YOU DO. So many times you need to tell yourself to" Just do it" Just finish it. Don’t stop and just continue. These are some things that comes to my mind when I feel like putting down the book or feel lazy. Before you know it, the work will be done.

To actually succeed in anything, I feel the person must have the right attitude. Hard work is need so you can improve. Determination is required so you can to push yourself to the limit. Remaining comfortable will not get it anywhere. Giving it you’re all and a little a bit more sends you on track for improvement. Improvement comes from hard work and hard work comes from your determination. They are inextricably linked. Even though it could be a torture or a pain to you, you just need to constantly remind yourself to just do it.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Our Reliance on Technology

Recently, two big things had happened to my family. They were all technology related. The first one which happened a few weeks ago was the malfunction of the refrigerator of my house. The next one was a car accident. Do not worry, nothing much happened but the car was damaged and was send to the repair shop. I have never experienced a car accident and I still have not as I was not in the car. I never thought that technology had so much influence of our lives until these two things happened.

As I was saying the refrigerator broke down. At first, I thought just get a new one. Well, it was not as simple as I thought it would as it caused massive problems. The food, yogurt, some drinks and fruits without refrigeration would spoil. The whole refrigerator had to be cleared out. All the food like meat, chicken and especially fish had turned bad within less than a day. A pungent smell had been emitted from the refrigerator. Apparently, it broken down during the night while we were asleep and the food turned bad unknowingly. We only realized this to our horror in the morning when the milk was not cold and smelt bad. My mum had to clear out the fridge and lay everything out on the table near the sink. She needed to sort out which food like vegetables can be kept for a few days and other non-perishable goods from those that could turn bad. For like 2 days, there was no ice. When I came back from training, I was thirsty and wanted to drink some nice cold ice water. I opened the refrigerator and then I remembered. For two days I did not have a cold drink and I realised I had drink ice water or drink almost every day. Only when I could drink it then I realised the urge to have it. The malfunction had created many problems such as sorting out food, disposing food that turned bad, packing canned food and spending time to go buy another one. The inconvenience was felt throughout the family.

Another thing was the car accident. My parents were in the car when the accident happened. Another car came from the side road into the main road and was not looking properly or something and he crashed or bumped my parents' car. The damage was not that bad but the after effects were worse. The other party had to compensate by repairing our car. However, the car parts will only arrived a few weeks later. They had to ship the parts. The car we have is not very popular. My sister and I had to take the bus to school. I took a taxi on a few occasions to school and returned by bus. My mum did not want me to be late. If I took the bus, it would take an hour and if there was a traffic jam I would be late. I had a heavy bag with the laptop and tennis gear if I had training on that day. If the teacher requested to see our file, then I would have another thing to bring along. My father brings me to school every day in the car and my mum usually sends me back home. I do take the bus back home on several occasions actually but never really done it consecutively. I realized that taking the bus back home was not really enjoyable. Having a car is a luxury and taking a bus actually waste quite a lot of time. Taking a ride home would take me 15 minutes while the bus takes me an hour and more. Standing the whole way with multiple things to carry was a torture, a heavy bag plus the laptop plus the tennis gear plus a file equals to exhaustion. I almost fell once as the heavy weight of the things carried me forward. I returned home perspiring from taking the bus than tennis training.

We rely on technology everyday. It has become a part of our life whether we like it or not. I always knew that we relied on technology and we lived with them but never realized the extent of our reliance. These two incidents had made me realized that technology had brought much comfort to us humans but what happens when it is taken away. We used them in everyday life such as washing clothes done by the washing machine and fan ourselves from the heat which is done by the electronic fan and the air-conditioner. We actually cannot live without them (it would be very had to travel and do stuff without them) Technology is advancing everyday and have been improving rapidly every since the 1900s.It had helped us with many daily task and improved our lives tremendously. There are many shows with the robots with artificial intelligence taking over the world and themes relating to it. Humans had become too reliant on these technologies and keep on improving them to raise our quality of life which resulted in plunging the world into chaos with robots and technology taking over. We have become reliant on technology and will technology someday control us as it controls how we live today. It is disturbing to know the fact that maybe one day technology has complete control over us. Is this day just a fantasy or can it happen in the near future or even worse…has it already started?

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Work over Sleep

Sorry for not blogging for 3 weeks. I had a very eventful and stressful 3 weeks. With the upcoming tests and heavy loads of homework, I did not have time to sleep not to mention blog. So today's topic is work over sleep.

These three weeks were hectic, especially this week. I was bombarded with homework, tests and everything else a boy would face in school. I had four tests this week, three real tests and a mock. First on Monday was a narrative writing test. On Tuesday, there was the Chinese Drama Performance. Then, a math test on Thursday and Geography mock test on the same day. The one the last day of the week was the most daunting day ever. I had two important test or events that day, the dreaded history test and a Chinese Current Affairs Discussion. I have a policy which was to study for all tests the week before. I had done this since primary school, had done this last year so this year was no different. However, with increasing homework and tests, I soon find this policy very hard to keep up with.

During the week I had little sleep. I had got through with the narrative writing test on Monday and studied the day before. I was able to sleep early the night before and in the morning, I felt refreshed like never before. This however soon would change for the worse. Tuesday Chinese Drama performance was frightening to me. I was never the acting sort of person and the script needed to be changed. On top of that, I needed to remember my lines. I refined the script till it was acceptable and by the time I was finished it was 11.30pm.Luckily I did my homework before the script or I would be still up working into the night. The next day, I was a bit groggy. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I came back late due to my CCA.I had to juggle studying for Mathematics and Geography test the next day. I stayed up till 12 in the morning to finish the revision. On Thursday night, it was worse. I had to prepare my Current affairs discussion script, study for History and also finish my homework. It simply overwhelmed mesas I was already exhausted from yesterday fell asleep at 11 and woke up half an hour late, That was the first time I ever sleep while studying, a completely new experience. I finish the rest of the revision and homework at 1 plus in the morning.

I realized the effects of little sleep on that Friday morning. I was not my usual self. I could not absorb whatever the teacher taught on that day. My eyelids were heavy and I wished I could put my head on the table. I struggled to keep consciousness but even though I was awake, nothing went into my head. I never really felt like this before, staring at the teacher but listening to a small portion of what he said. My head was heavy and I went to the toilet to wash up. Washing your face was supposed to wake a person up but it did not take much effect. The day just went downhill.

Why do people need to sleep? Simply, they are tired so they need to rest. Sleep is a state whereby your body is not active (Unconscious) but can be aroused. Your body systems slow down such as digestion and your pulse rate. Sleep is needed because your body needs to repair itself. A children and teenagers need to have sufficient amount of sleep to be able to grow. When you sleep, growth hormones are produced so ample sleep is needed. However, it is importance to note that sleeping too long for a long period of time can give the opposite effect. The amount of sleep needed for children is 8 hours while for adults; it is 5 hours and 5 minutes. Sufficient amount of sleep is importance because it affects the performance of your body system. Lack of sleep can lead to weakening of your body immunity system and you may fall sick if you do not get sufficient sleep. Let’s take rats for example. Rats have a lifespan of 2-3 years but if they are deprived of sleep, they live to about 3 weeks. For humans, it does not have devastating effects to that extent but still lack of sleep can cause problems for us. Our nervous systems do not work properly, making the person drowsy and unable to concentrate. Long periods of sleep deprivation can lead to impairment of memory or judgement and reduced physical performance. The importance of sleep is well-known throughout the world but how many actually have the time to sleep?

In this fast-paced society where stress-levels are high as workloads are staggering, how many can actually find the time to sleep. Deadlines of assignments or reports haunt both children and adults. Many adults work through the night to accomplish their work. Their submission of work and the quality determine the chances of retaining their job. Jobs give adults salary and this money is used to support a family. So in order to get the money, he needs to hand up work on time and to do that he needs to work through the night and because of that he is deprived of sleep. Most of us choose work over sleep though many know that it is bad for health but what can we do? Time management do not help if too much work is given. Work is important but is it more important than sleep? Logical answers would be yes, health is more important than work as if you are not healthy how can you work. Falling sick because of lack of sleep would put you out of action for a long time and you cannot put bread on the table. Many people take work as their utmost priority thus neglecting their health. Therefore while working to their limits to earn as much as they can, they soon burn out and fall sick.

I too start to feel the effects of the "burn out" Everyday, I have trouble waking up due to exhaustion. I know lack of sleep is bad but work and tests force many children to stay up way past their bedtimes to complete the work. Many fear to get scolding from teachers or parents if work is not done so children tirelessly toiled through the night. People are caught in the middle point between sleep and work. It is not like people do not want to sleep but rather they can’t sleep because of work. The question is not about whether sleep or work is more important. It is about how to balance sleep and work in this community.