Where did they go?

I'm always curious to find out where all the youngsters have gone these days. Trust me, I've checked from the Fourth Bridge to the Yellow Depths. But they seem nowhere to be found. Even in that newfangled town on the outer reaches... What was that name again? Facebook? It seems as though they aren't there. Plenty of activities there I'll say, but everyone cooped up in their own homes, not out in the streets, talking, walking, and living I'll say. It seems almost a ghost town.

Brr.

-The Cap'n

Thats great.

After all those years, finally, someone senior owes up to their mistake. But what conclusive fix-up was planned? Only more creative teaching? You've been doing that for 30 years but it doesn't really seem to work does it?

My view, on how we may improve our lingua franca, is that we do not try to be too greedy and stick our hands in two pots at once. Look, I know the policy means well, and I am not protesting for a complete overhaul, but the fact remains: We are not all linguists. Heck, we can barely manage one language, and you demand that we master two? I don't think many will agree that we can master two in a short space of time. And in the end, what do you get? Only a half pot language of each where the world doesn't understand us. And that goes right against the policy's aims.

Perhaps one shouldn't demand. But entice. Make it not a requirement. The minds of students work against their teachers - The more you push them, the more they want to walk the opposite way. Let them discover for themselves, the wonder of each language, and when they push themselves, see them fly.

-Cap'n Mook

Gaming - cause or effect of poor results?

Today, while reading the papers, I came across this article with the title - 'Long hours on the computer linked to poor results: Poll'

Well, they linked long hours to poor results, that meaning, academic results. But what I found consistently missing in the article and subsequent 'study' was the lack of description of the condition the gamers were in before they were classified as 'addicted'. There is no reason one who spends time on the computer would improve his results if the time spent were playing games. Just as if I tried to read English books to improve my maths. It is a moot point actually, to state that long hours on the computer is linked to poor results. And this brings us to my next point.

Computer games are created to be fun, and through fun, it is to transport the player into an alternate reality with different rules which he must play by to 'win'. Developers consistently seek to create engaging game worlds for the player to escape into. Therefore, games are actually a portal to escape the reality of life, it is true across the board, the sense of immersion only being more or less. It is also true, for many developing manuals, that the developer must 'create an engaging game world to provide a total immersion for the player'.

So establishing that game worlds are fantasies that people may escape to, it can be consistently found that students, those that play these games tend to be of poorer academic results as compared to this counterparts. What is it that draws these students to these games? It is the alternate reality which it provides for these students to escape, even if for a moment, from the stresses of life. To talk about it in the opposite way round, who would buy a game which is harder than life itself? Games are made to be possible for the player to win, and thus feel satisfied. When they are satisfied, most players would continue playing the game for that satisfaction and the cycle repeats. If they do not succeed in real life, they at least my succeed in-game.

Taking an excellent student, he or she, it may be found, will most likely to be found to spend less time on the computer than others. Those that perform well in school have less reason to escape reality if life is fulfilling in itself.

Therefore, gaming is an effect of poor results and not a cause, as much studies claim, for they do no formal report on the student's ability before they start playing games.

(Argument fix up pending)

-Cap'n Mook.

Taking the fight to the enemy!

Recently, I engaged somebody else on Facebook on a certain topic concerning what was better - Speech or writing. But that was the aftermath. What really sparked me off was what the other person said about writers. Really un-based remarks.

Of course I replied(or this post wouldn't be here) and thus we engaged in a debate which morphed into the aftermath.

But then, he turned to making nasty remarks on the writer(yours truly) on other places of Facebook in places where he knew I would see em'.

An open provocation.

A wiser man would have said, 'Ignore it.' But the allure was too much to resist. I had to take him on.

So here we go. Gather the artillery! Dust the jeeps and roll out the tanks!

We are taking the fight to the enemy!

-Cap'n Mook

Unknown

Of an unknown beat, a soundless whisper.
Time spun, wound, lost.
Unknown, of what all.
Perhaps the world, that rushes on by.